Building design fosters research, innovation and collaboration
Phoenix, AZ, January 5, 2005-Nearly 18 months after breaking
ground in downtown Phoenix, the Translational Genomics Research
Institute (TGen) in late December moved into their new
state-of-the-art headquarters. The six-story, $46 million dollar
building forms the cornerstone of a planned bioscience and medical
research campus located in downtown Phoenix.
"To go from concept to actually moving into our permanent
headquarters in less than two years is remarkable," says Dr.
Jeffrey M. Trent, TGen's President and Scientific Director. "The
building provides an open and flexible space that meets the needs
of our diverse research programs while fostering an environment of
scientific collaboration and innovation."
The City of Phoenix designed an open and flexible laboratory environment that met the needs of TGen's diverse research programs while fostering an environment of scientific collaboration and innovation.
The move consolidates a majority of TGen's research and administrative teams and is a major step forward in a process begun in June 2002 by state and local governments, the state universities and community colleges, Native American communities, foundations, health systems, businesses and private supporters joining together to form TGen.
The 173,000 square foot City of Phoenix-owned building is as cutting edge as the research conducted within its green glass walls. The building's concrete frame structure provides day lighting to all laboratory and office areas, and employs numerous energy efficiency strategies including a variable air volume air distribution system, energy recovery from laboratory exhaust, variable speed pumps, high efficiency boilers, electronic sensors on faucets, indirect lighting, as well as reduced energy use from utilizing central district cooling from the City of Phoenix.
The TGen building is the first structure in what will become the Phoenix Bioscience Center at Copper Square, a 15-acre bioscience and medical research campus. When fully developed, the site will house over one million square feet of laboratory and office space, including the proposed joint university school of medicine. The Arizona BioMedical Collaborative, a partnership between Arizona's state universities, plans to develop its own research facilities devoted to biotech, education and research activities on the campus.
SmithGroup, the nation's third largest architecture/engineering firm, designed the TGen headquarters building. SmithGroup provides architecture, engineering, interior design and planning services for specialized clients including cultural, learning, healthcare, workplace, government and science and technology. The building contractor was DPR Construction Inc, a company consistently ranked as one of the top general contractors in the country specializing in technically challenging and environmentally complex projects for the advanced technology, biopharmaceutical, corporate office and healthcare.
About TGen
The mission of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen)
is to make and translate genomic discoveries into advances in human
health. Translational genomics research is a relatively new field
employing innovative advances arising from the Human Genome Project
and applying them to the development of diagnostics, prognostics
and therapies for cancer, neurological disorders, diabetes and
other complex diseases. TGen is focused on personalized medicine
and plans to accomplish its goals through robust and
diseased-focused research programs and its state-of-the-art
bioinformatics and computational biology facilities.
