Redefining the Construction Process Helps Companies Increase Efficiency and Accelerate Speed to Market

What is the best way to deliver a facility? Contractually? Organizationally? Speculatively? To maintain a competitive edge in today’s “bio-crazed” marketplace, companies must continuously investigate alternative methods for developing their technically sophisticated projects.

Build it and they will come…“From White Plains, NY to Washington D.C. to Dallas to Richmond, CA, cities and counties are developing strategic plans to draw bioscience activity to their areas and forming public-private partnerships to create incubators, clusters of small laboratory and office space. Visiting South San Francisco, the Silicon Valley equivalent to the bioscience world, economic development groups, government entities, foreign countries, academics, real estate developers and private investors tour existing spaces to discover what it takes to successfully develop highly technical biotech facilities - fueling a nationwide trend of speculative biotech development.

Who will win the race to become the next Bay Area, Boston or San Diego, the three largest biotech centers in the country?

According to George Pfeffer of DPR, a number of elements must fall into place to create a thriving biotech hub, including close proximity to universities and research centers, reliable water and power supplies, a qualified labor force, and available space that meets the unusual floor-to-ceiling height requirements of laboratory and research space.

“Due to their highly technical nature, it is often more cost-effective for companies to design and build facilities from the ground up rather than renovating existing buildings,” said Pfeffer. “However, with the shortage of available space in desired biotech hubs, we have efficiently renovated and built out facilities for a number of customers - saving time and dollars through upfront planning, value engineering, constructability analysis and continuous collaboration.” DPR’s customers range from large biotech companies to small start-ups, including Alza, Bayer, COR Therapeutics, Chiron, Cumbre, Genelogic, Genentech, Novartis and Zyomyx.

Redefining Design/Build

So, what is the best way to deliver a facility?

The approach being used for IDEC Pharmaceuticals’ new manufacturing facility in Oceanside, CA will “redefine the process,” according to Jay Leopold of DPR in San Diego. “The team recognized early that the goals for the project were going to be difficult to achieve unless we changed the process,” said Leopold. “We need to build with the same speed and accuracy as we do on all manufacturing jobs, even with the additional FDA involvements and requirements. Therefore, we created a collaborative work environment for delivering this highly technical facility.”

By leasing 20,000 sq. ft. and housing the major design and construction entities, more than 20 organizations, together with the owner team under one roof to increase consistency and collaboration, IDEC is taking design/build to new heights.

The “new and improved” process, Leopold added, includes one major contract, coordinates design and construction, has potential design cost advantages by having the construction sequence drive design, improves communication and quality control for the customer, is a more adaptable engineering approach, and assures full integration of contractors into a design/build mode.

“It’s a very powerful approach developed in collaboration with an extraordinary client,” said Leopold. “We’ve created an environment of trust with IDEC that allows us to work side by side to achieve project goals.”

With a May construction start, the 30-month project is scheduled for completion in November 2004 and includes a three-story, 210,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility; a three-story, 120,000-sq.-ft. laboratory building; a warehouse; and maintenance and central utility buildings, all connected by a spine (corridor).

Detailed Specialty Lab Work

Along with building “mega-facilities,” DPR also has a “Special Labs Group” in San Diego that focuses on meeting customers’ needs on a smaller scale.

“We’ve established a highly experienced team, who knows how to build in a live science environment, to concentrate on remodeling laboratories,” said Deborah Beetson of DPR. “Our projects range from changing out casework to adding in gases and fume hoods to installing walk-in cold rooms. We understand the special requirements of clean construction and are especially sensitive to noise, dust, vibrations and, even, smells - anything that might contaminate ongoing experiments.”

For example, the group created four new chemical control areas, each impacting an area of approximately 2,000 sq. ft., within an operating laboratory building for R.W. Johnson. Already extremely dense in terms of utilities, ductwork, piping, conduit and chemistry space above the ceiling, DPR built out the separate control areas, without disrupting the scientists, in six months. The project included extending control area walls up through utilities and re-constructing duct work to produce completely isolated areas.

“Specialty lab work is extremely demanding, as we are often building in the middle of an active environment,” said Bill Doyle of DPR. “To ensure success, we conduct detailed pre-task planning to discuss sensitive issues and how we can keep construction from impacting the science.”

Beetson added that to be a biotech builder requires a “passion about science and the field,” and knowledge in areas, such as:

• medical gases,
• water treatment systems,
• all aspects of clean protocol construction,
• and how construction fits into the client’s business.

“To successfully install custom process systems or re-work live lab spaces, we need to clearly understand the customer’s goals, science and processes,” said Doyle.

Zoom, zoom, zoom for Zyomyx

Whether the project is a new manufacturing facility, a tenant improvement (TI) for a biotech start-up or specialty lab work, “really listening and understanding customer’s expectations are critical,” said Mark Jenkins, DPR project manager for Zyomyx in Hayward, CA. “From the start, we do our due diligence. We determine what is required by the permitting agencies, what the quality requirements are for the facility, what we need to do to meet the customer’s expectations, and then, we put together a proactive plan of action to ensure a smooth and quick delivery.”

DPR completed a 5,000-sq.-ft. laboratory and cleanroom TI for Zyomyx in an aggressive three-month design/permit/build schedule. To meet the schedule, the team looked for ways to reduce the standard 12-week permitting review cycle.

The first step included persuading the city of Hayward to issue an “over-the-counter” permit for non-structural demolition and underground utility installation, allowing construction to begin at the same time as detailed design. The team also proposed design solutions that eliminated large portions of the design review process, including the structural design review from the plan check process by mounting the HVAC equipment on an existing interior slab rather than the conventional rooftop mounting. In addition, the team negotiated with the city for courtesy inspections, which enabled above slab construction to begin when the drawings were submitted for permit.

“The courtesy inspections allowed us to build to the maximum extent permissible during the permitting review,” said Jenkins. “By working closely together and anticipating needs, we finished the project one month after permit receipt.”