Boosting economic growth in a pro-science community
It’s not often that you get the opportunity to collaborate on a unique public-private partnership undertaking that has the potential to save lives. Building upon RS&H’s proven science facility design portfolio, the company partnered with a design-build team to design an advanced development and manufacturing facility for Resilience (formerly Nanotherapeutics and Ology Bioservices), a privately held biopharmaceutical company that sought to deliver innovative medical countermeasure products to ward off chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. Leadership from the client and design-build team worked together to submit a grant proposal that would bring financial support from the Department of Defense to fund the 165,000–square–foot advanced development and manufacturing facility that contains research and quality control laboratories, BSL-3 bio-containment laboratories and production space, pilot plant, warehouse, offices, and a conference center.
Based on the premise of keeping the warfighter in the fight, the facility required a flexible design that would allow emergency access rights to the Department of Defense should they need to take over the facility to produce potential vaccines and treatment for the military forces at a rapid, long scale. As the architect of record and laboratory programmer, RS&H developed the facility’s master plan to allow for open-ended design capabilities because it is not known what BSL-3 capability may be needed to respond to critical issues and what quantity of treatment is needed in a certain amount of time.
The site’s infrastructure, security, dual power structure, blast handling, small arms protective measures, and manufacturing functions all had to be meticulously planned and executed to meet government requirements. With so many variables in play, RS&H had to flexibly design each facility function independently, allowing for growth as needed. The building’s footprint containing six main program parts (administration, training, laboratories, process manufacturing, central utility plan, and warehouse) had to be adaptable to the extent of doubling the building’s initial square footage if necessary.