CTRC

Owner: State University of New York at Buffalo

Project Value: $34.3 million

Completed: June 2012

Architect: Cannon Design

USGBC: LEED Silver

Kaleida Health and the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) broke ground on a new 10-story Gates Vascular Institute and Clinical and Translational Research Center, changing the health care in Buffalo forever. As this building exemplifies collaboration between health care and research, the construction was no different. Floors 1 through 4 house Kaleida Health’s Gates Vascular Institute, floors 5 through 8 house UB’s Clinical Translational Research Center (CTRC). Half of the 5th floor houses the Jacobs Neurological Institute, and the 9th floor is dedicated to a mechanical penthouse.

Our team signed on as construction manager at-risk and oversaw construction for the fit-out of the 170,000 sq. ft. UB CTRC space. The area has dedicated wet and dry research laboratories, offices, seminar and conference rooms, advanced imaging facilities, bio-repository facility, a clinical research center with nine exam rooms and more. A couple of unique components are an installed autoclave and a vivarium.

Due to the projects tight schedule and limitations, all materials were delivered and loaded into the building on second shift to avoid congestion and increase production on the project. Throughout construction, the MEP & FP coordination utilized Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) and BIM by having the various trades add their components in an appropriate order. Once owner approved, contractors were able to begin their off-site fabrication process, which alleviated site congestion. Keeping this process organized proved to be challenging, but with our team’s hands-on role, the process ran smoothly.

To ensure LEED certification was met, our team managed the process. For example, a unique exhaust system was installed that recovers the heat through a glycol chilling system to reclaim the heat to reduce overall costs for heating. Within the central 78 ft. high atrium with a smoke evacuation system, this pressurizes the building appropriately when the building is exhausted. Other sustainable practices included using reclaimed materials and ensuring that all paints, glues, etc. were low VOC. This rigorous process paid off as the project achieved LEED Silver certification.

The original estimated budget was $34.1 million and with owner added scope of work the actual construction cost came in at $34.3 million. Even with the added changes, our crew was able to meet the projected certificate of occupancy date of June 15, 2012.