Research at the River’s Edge In support of San Diego State University’s goal to be at the forefront of ongoing and emerging water issues, like drought, flooding, and contamination, Swinerton and FPBA are proud to have worked with SDSU researchers to develop a new 480-square-foot field lab adjacent to the SDSU Mission Valley river park. Funded in part by a San Diego River Conservancy grant, the facility helps fulfill the lab’s mission statement: “The One Water Lab at SDSU Mission Valley is a living learning laboratory, located at the nexus of urban development and the San Diego River ecosystem, that is dedicated to advancing the principle that all water has value and must be protected. We educate future policymakers and scientists, empower our local community, and safeguard our shared water future.” Partnering with Swinerton through progressive design-build, FPBA and its consultant team were tasked with designing on a tight, elevated site that sits beneath the trolley viaduct to prepare for the placement of a prefabricated modular lab building and demonstration yard. The facility serves as a workforce training and outreach center addressing water quality, stormwater treatment and water reuse with innovative technologies. Our team worked closely with SDSU, Swinerton, and the modular building manufacturer to identify site challenges early, work within the constraints of the trolley viaduct, and protect the adjacent bioretention basin. The result is an accessible lab steps from the San Diego River ecosystem, where students can gain hands-on experience with water treatment and reuse technologies and visitors can see how stormwater, wastewater, and drinking water connect.
Sorrento Therapeutics is an antibody-centric, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of safe and effective immunotherapies for oncology and autoimmune/inflammation diseases. The company’s acquisition of several companies drove the need to expand its facilities and bring these acquisitions under one roof in a leased 75,000-square-foot building. The project included renovation of existing labs, offices and a lobby, along with new designs for labs, offices, a vivarium, a lunch room, a lunch patio and a board room. Sorrento’s scientific groups included bacteria, infectious disease, oncology/immunology, TNK, LA Cell, and chemistry, some of which were new groups within the company. Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects worked closely with these groups to establish a common lab module that would meet their specific needs but also be flexible for groups to expand and share space as they grow within two large open laboratories. This included the chemistry lab, which required segregation for safety and contamination control. FPBA assisted with capturing equipment information for legacy equipment coming from several different locations and consolidated shared equipment in centrally located support rooms to save space and money. The project was constructed in three phases on a fast-track schedule with successive occupancy dates. FPBA coordinated the approvals for this phasing with the building officials using a single set of permit drawings and obtained the permit in just four weeks to complete design and start construction ahead of schedule.
The La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology is a private biomedical research institute located in UC San Diego’s Science Research Park. The South Shell Lab Build-Out project consists of 6,000 square feet of flexible laboratory space for biomedical research, including a tissue culture lab, principal investigator offices and a lab technician office area. The project improved upon the existing building lab standards by testing multiple laboratory layouts and implementing lessons learned from past projects. The space’s open lab environment encourages a collaborative work environment.
Gilead Sciences opened its new site in Oceanside by purchasing an existing clinical-scale manufacturing building. Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects was tasked with creating a campus environment when Gilead acquired the adjacent building to house laboratories and office space. The new site improvements created accessible pedestrian access and landscaping to tie the two buildings together, and the new glass storefront at the lobby entrance provided more natural light. The interior space was master planned to create a mezzanine for utilities and to preserve critical space for a future pilot plant, more labs and offices. Conference rooms, multi-purpose space, a cafeteria and fitness center were added to provide the amenities that had previously been lacking.
Significant exterior and interior upgrades were designed by FPBA to BioMed Realty Trust’s facility at Road to the Cure, a 1980s vintage building located in La Jolla, California. The 68,000-square-foot building was completely renovated to include four upgraded laboratory spaces that take maximum advantage of both natural light and the landscaped views outdoors. Reconfigured laboratory suites respond to a variety of tenant needs to allow for maximum flexibility as end-user requirements evolve. The new conference center with contemporary audio visual capabilities is expandable to the exterior where outside meeting and gathering areas are carefully integrated with new landscape and site enhancements. The building’s exterior areas were designed as direct extensions of the interior upgrades, with new canopies visually expanding from the base building. The new technology-based fitness center provides tenants a welcome opportunity to enjoy physical activities away from their desk at any time during the day.
This campus houses one of the most advanced facilities of its type in the world, setting new standards not only for biotech process design and automation but also in project execution and delivery. Since its completion, this 90,000-liter-capacity facility has produced significant cancer and arthritis therapies for the U.S. and the world. While all mammalian process-based, the facility has thrived in its ability to campaign manufacture the blockbuster drugs Rituxan (first ever FDA-approved biotech therapy for cancer), Avastin and Actemra. FPBA created an inspiring, worker-friendly campus with flexibility for unknown growth. The team also master planned an expandable campus (up to 1.2 million square feet) supported by a central utility “spine” to which future buildings could be readily connected. The result of this project is a large-scale, integrated biotech manufacturing campus that was master planned in a design-build collaborative effort with the client, contractors and many engineering disciplines to handle the profound special needs of its client and the biopharmaceutical industry.
