EXTRA EXTRA ENGINEERING – WHAT IS LIFE SCIENCE?

 

Life Sciences projects have been around for decades. However, with health and research currently at the forefront of many conversations, the topic of Life Sciences has made a resurgence which had us peering deeper into what Life Sciences means and what is included in that market. We connected with our Raleigh teammates and Life Sciences leaders, Rob Stevenson, and Timothy Hilton, to uncover more details.

Rob and Timothy began by describing exactly what a Life Sciences project means to them: “Anything related to research and development in pharmaceutical/medical related engineering fields. This can correspond with drug development and gene therapy, but also expands into agricultural research as well. It’s an “umbrella term” to signal a project in which is geared towards research and development.

While it seems there has been a recent uptick in demand for life science projects, the market has been not only around, but also active for years. Both Timothy and Rob cut their teeth on Life Sciences upwards of 15 years ago, when they were both at FLAD Architects. In that AE environment, each project manager worked side-by-side with lab planners and life sciences-focused architects to create award-winning project designs.

Life Sciences projects historically have gained traction in areas of the country such as Boston and the West Coast. With skyrocketing growth in the cost of living in these major cities, other areas of the country were sought out for research and development office locations. With a solid talent pool from local universities and an affordable cost of living, Raleigh/Durham was a clear frontrunner. Since the Research Triangle Park concept in the 1950s, the region has become a hotbed incubating for the Life Sciences market.

The pandemic added to a heightening concern of health topics that transcend beyond the Covid-19 virus, putting the Raleigh/Durham region on the map as the newest frontier in the cutting-edge race of research and development.

With almost 80 percent of Rob’s projects and more than half of Timothy’s projects relating to Life Sciences work, it’s fair to say that both gentlemen have had their own set of challenges and personal triumphs in the field.

Their point of contact from a favorite Life Sciences project brought a new developer lab building opportunity in Research Triangle Park. This challenging project forced the project team to get ahead of the other design disciplines (architect and MEP) to meet the aggressive deadline. With the developer prospecting tenants during design, the team had to pivot and add an additional floor at the end of design. Through the Raleigh team’s adaptability, problem solving, creativity, and flexibility they successfully completed this exciting project—on time and on budget.

One of their most challenging projects to date, Novo Nordisk is a local pharmaceutical company that wanted to renovate a preexisting warehouse into a new manufacturing line. Because the original warehouse had undergone several previous upfits, it wasn’t designed for the new, unintended uses, which called for many creative solutions. On top of the design challenges, time was also a major concern. The entire design process had to coordinate with a construction schedule that called for a 10-day shutdown on site, totaling about $1 million a day. Accuracy was key to making this happen and all team members were asked to provide two contact numbers so they could be reached at any hour of day or night.

Through these career-developing projects and challenges, Rob, and Timothy both flex and increase their structural engineering expertise. It’s not just about the problem-solving and ever-evolving workload that excite this Raleigh team, but also the growing client and consultant interactions and relationships. In this fast-paced environment, the team’s utmost concern is the highly technical quality of work that they deliver.