Project Details
Designer: Payette Associates, Inc.
Contractor: Whiting Turner Contracting Company, Inc.
Project Type: CM at Risk
Gross Square Feet: 208,000
Est. Total Project Cost: $181,911,510
Est. Construction Substantial Completion Date: Winter 2026/27
Project Features
The Tower houses two MDPH bureaus: the Bureau of Infections Disease and Laboratory Sciences and the Bureau of Climate and Environmental Health, both of which provide critical services for epidemiologic investigation, disease prevention, testing, and screening for the Commonwealth. A primary goal of this study is to ensure that the Tower will continue to support the essential work of these Bureaus in the near and long term recognizing that it is the only facility in the state that performs tests for rabies, arboviruses, botulism, pandemic strains of influenza and is the only laboratory in the state that can adequately test for chemical and biological agents of terrorism. To achieve this, the facility must be brought into alignment with best practice standards for modern laboratory and office space planning. These standards require: flexible layouts that can be readily reconfigured to support programmatic evolution, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and accommodate appropriate growth, a high level of quality and assure security controls, and provide a state-of-the-art building infrastructural systems.
The renewal of this facility also reflects the Commonwealth’s commitment to better stewardship of the state’s assets and the improvement of facilities management and decarbonization. Accordingly metrics for the success of this project must account for operating costs, ease of operations and maintenance, energy conservation, universal design goals and enhanced resilience in the face of ever escalating climate change and societal threats.