MORGANTOWN, WV – With the completion of the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI) on the campus of West Virginia University, researchers around the world have gained a powerful tool in their efforts to address Alzheimer’s disease, said US Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) at the dedication ceremony today.

Rockefeller established the Institute in 1999 in memory of his mother, who died of Alzheimer’s disease in 1992. As part of the building’s dedication, the US Postal Service held a first-day-of-issue ceremony for its Alzheimer’s Awareness stamp.

The completion of the 76,000 s.f. project brings together under one roof researchers who had previously been dispersed among several campuses. A gateway to the University’s health sciences ...[more]

Think you know what goes on here? Look again. Step inside Hackerman Hall, home to Johns Hopkins’ Computational Sciences program and a remarkable intellectual crossroads.

Saint-Gobain’s expanded research development facility in Northborough, Massachusetts, has received LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council.  Sustainable project highlights include a heat recovery wheel and a pressurized raised-floor system that promotes equal distribution of tempered air in the building.

The facility, which is part of Saint-Gobain’s Massachusetts research campus, was completed in 2009. The project makes ample use of building products from Saint-Gobain and its CertainTeed and ADFORS subsidiaries, from glass and roofing to adhesives, wallboard, and insulation. A.J. Martini of Winchester, Massachusetts, was the project’s construction manager.

Shepley’s other recent ...[more]

What are the benefits – and challenges – facing architecture firms seeking to advance knowledge-based design by conducting facility evaluations on their own projects? Angela Watson and Mardelle Shepley discuss the process for practitioner-focused facility evaluation (PFE) in the Design & Health Scientific Review section of the January 2011 issue of World Health Design.

In the article, Angela and Mardelle present a study conducted using different methods of practitioner-focused facility evaluation, drawing information from Shepley Bulfinch projects at Concord Hospital; Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care (including the ...[more]

NORTHBORO, MA – Saint-Gobain marked the completion of the expansion of the firm’s largest international research center in Northboro, Massachusetts, with a ceremony on July 30 attended by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and company executives from around the world.

The $15 million R&D facility, which broke ground a year ago, provides 60,000 square feet of new lab, office and meeting space for 200 scientists and engineers involved in cutting-edge research into building materials, plastics, ceramics, and abrasives, as well as the development of state-of-the-art technology to promote energy efficiency in buildings. The Northboro site is the largest of Saint-Gobain’s four worldwide research centers.

The facility, which is targeting LEED Gold certification, ...[more]