The need for continuing breakthroughs in the fight against infectious diseases — along with technological advancements that propel this research forward — means that life sciences companies need to be confident that their facilities are suitable for current and future uses.

The American Type Culture Collection — also known as ATCC — is building a new biomanufacturing facility at its headquarters located in Prince William County, Virginia’s Innovation Technology Park, a 1,500-acre research campus. Located adjacent to ATCC’s current facility, this building will play an important role in supporting the research of infectious diseases through the products and services it provides to its life sciences clients.

The nonprofit organization, an Innovation Technology Park tenant since 1998, is investing $54.7M in the construction of the new building.

ATCC recently announced that the new facility is partially funded through a construction grant provided by the National Institutes of Health.

“We applied for this grant because it was clear that more biomedical manufacturing infrastructure was required to accelerate transitional research for diagnostic, vaccine and therapeutic development,” said Rebecca Bradford, vice president of government programs within ATCC Federal Solutions. “In addition, preparedness efforts have additionally accelerated research and development for other pathogens of pandemic potential.”

She said that the goal of the design, construction and commissioning of this modern facility is to build a critically needed biological manufacturing-capable site with space to support private and government institutions.

ATCC teamed up with architecture and engineering firm EwingCole to design this new facility.

“ATCC’s work revolves around advancing the ability to quickly react to the spread of infectious diseases, and the company is a backbone for research in this area of science,” said EwingCole principal Tyler Grimshaw. “This expansion enables Prince William County to show that the research facilities in the technology park are thriving.”

EwingCole worked with ATCC to pinpoint the aspects of the project that NIH funding would cover as well as to document the progress of the design for NIH’s review and approval. This process was essential to ensure NIH standards and ATCC’s operational goals were aligned. EwingCole provided documents and reviewed the design with both ATCC and NIH at project milestones: 35%, 65% and 95% completion.

“From a scheduling standpoint, it made the most sense to overlay stakeholder reviews, so that we are giving everybody the same version of the documents at the same time,” Grimshaw said. “We needed to collect everybody’s input simultaneously to determine how we were going to progress the design to the next phase and advance all parties shared goals moving forward.”

One technical hurdle for EwingCole was the limited opportunity for natural light in the facility because these labs are operating in a controlled environment. Also, the building’s upper level is entirely dedicated to mechanical systems and wouldn’t need windows. This meant that the team had to innovate.

“We had to be creative about the exterior envelope to harmonize the new building to the adjacent existing facility,” he said. “We utilized the same family of materials present on the existing facility and layered them on the envelope in place of where we would typically expect windows to be. This helped scale the proportions of the building and create a cohesive campus look and feel while also allowing the building to stand in its own right.”

Another hurdle the design team needed to overcome was the expectations for the project scope due to rising construction costs. 

“We worked very closely with the owner to define their most critical success factors for the new facility," he said. "As the scope was reduced, we focused on doing the work that was considered most vital and preserving the design and documentation of those foundational elements. One such vital element EwingCole has taken measures to ensure is that the lab spaces at ATCC are safe and optimized for the tenant’s work with infectious diseases."

When EwingCole works with life sciences companies, it brings decision-makers in early during the programming phase, which Grimshaw considers the most critical phase of the project. Understanding the success factors early in design allowed the team to be flexible when budget factors necessitated changes in later phases.

“We want users to have a space that advances their mission, meets their expectations and functions properly,” he said. “It’s most important for us to listen to the feedback we receive and make sure that the building captures everything that the user is asking of us.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and EwingCole. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.