The WorkingBuildings Companies, a leading provider of comprehensive Owner-based solutions for the built environment, announces the acquisition of Specialty Operations Solutions (SOS), a national provider of research and laboratory services. This addition to the firm strengthens The WorkingBuildings Companies’ position as one of the fastest-growing comprehensive professional services firm in the world and expands their existing service offerings.
The WorkingBuildings Companies features six specialized divisions of service dedicated to providing facility Owner’s with quality processes for the built environment. These six divisions include WorkingBuildings, WorkingHospitals, WorkingLaboratories, WB | Global Advisory, CxAlloy, and now, SOS. Each branch works to define success for projects and to address inconsistencies when bringing complex facilities online, and SOS specifically adds medical products to market. The services our branches provide result in a facility with fewer operational issues and less expense, both during the design and construction phase and throughout the operational lifespan.
President and CEO of WorkingBuildings, Michael Weiss, says of the acquisition, “SOS fits in seamlessly with the goals of The WorkingBuildings Companies. The addition of this highly respected group of doctors, scientists, engineers, and technicians to the WorkingBuildings team will provide great value to our clients. We will be able to provide owners with a truly turnkey research or manufacturing laboratory that is assured to operate efficiently, to meet all the mandatory requirements, and to achieve FDA compliance. We can now accomplish this while simultaneously reducing the construction and operational cost. Our expanded service offerings give WorkingBuildings greater depth and capabilities while providing consistency typically not found in the marketplace. We are very excited about the possibilities this new addition brings.”
With this new division, The WorkingBuildings Companies is able to assist their clients with turnkey services for CGMP laboratory facilities and manufacturing facilities and GTP laboratory and manufacturing facilities for products designed to treat a variety of human and animal diseases and injuries. The SOS staff is particularly experienced with cell and tissue therapies, regenerative medicine products, cord blood banking and processing, USP 797and 823 dispensing facilities, and in the specific facility and process needs required for new and emerging therapies and devices. SOS’ services include but are not limited to detailed basis of design document development, facility project management, facility programming, complete quality assurance and regulatory services support, SOP development and training, and research animal care. The SOS division will focus on the GxP, research animal care, and USP 797/823 markets to provide Owners with a facility and program that will meet stringent FDA, USDA, EMEA, AAALAC-I and State Pharmacy Control Board requirements.
About The WorkingBuildings Companies
WorkingBuildings, LLC is an employee-owned professional service firm specializing in building commissioning, LEED® certification, sustainability consulting, laboratory pre-certification, standard operating procedures for bio-medical facilities, risk/threat mitigation, and CxAlloy Suites software. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, GA with offices located in Albuquerque, Alexandria, Austin, Birmingham, Jackson, New Orleans, New York,, West Trenton, Charlotte and Winston-Salem; and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). For more information, call 678-990-8001 or visit www.workingbuildings.com.
About Specialty Operations Solutions
Specialty Operations Solutions (SOS) is a professional services firm that works strategically for the Owner to bridge the gap between development and FDA compliance requirements for a CGMP facility or product. For more information, call 678-990-8001 or visit www.specialtyoperations.com.
Related Stories
| Feb 11, 2011
RS Means Cost Comparison Chart: Office Buildings
This month's RS Means Cost Comparison Chart focuses on office building construction.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable features on the bill for dual-building performing arts center at Soka University of America
The $73 million Soka University of America’s new performing arts center and academic complex recently opened on the school’s Aliso Viejo, Calif., campus. McCarthy Building Companies and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects collaborated on the two-building project. One is a three-story, 47,836-sf facility with a grand reception lobby, a 1,200-seat auditorium, and supports spaces. The other is a four-story, 48,974-sf facility with 11 classrooms, 29 faculty offices, a 150-seat black box theater, rehearsal/dance studio, and support spaces. The project, which has a green roof, solar panels, operable windows, and sun-shading devices, is going for LEED Silver.
| Feb 11, 2011
BIM-enabled Texas church complex can broadcast services in high-def
After two years of design and construction, members of the Gateway Church in Southland, Texas, were able to attend services in their new 4,000-seat facility in late 2010. Located on a 180-acre site, the 205,000-sf complex has six auditoriums, including a massive 200,000-sf Worship Center, complete with catwalks, top-end audio and video system, and high-definition broadcast capabilities. BIM played a significant role in the building’s design and construction. Balfour Beatty Construction and Beck Architecture formed the nucleus of the Building Team.
| Feb 11, 2011
Kentucky’s first green adaptive reuse project earns Platinum
(FER) studio, Inglewood, Calif., converted a 115-year-old former dry goods store in Louisville, Ky., into a 10,175-sf mixed-use commercial building earned LEED Platinum and holds the distinction of being the state’s first adaptive reuse project to earn any LEED rating. The facility, located in the East Market District, houses a gallery, event space, offices, conference space, and a restaurant. Sustainable elements that helped the building reach its top LEED rating include xeriscaping, a green roof, rainwater collection and reuse, 12 geothermal wells, 81 solar panels, a 1,100-gallon ice storage system (off-grid energy efficiency is 68%) and the reuse and recycling of construction materials. Local firm Peters Construction served as GC.
| Feb 11, 2011
Former Richardson Romanesque hotel now houses books, not beds
The Piqua (Ohio) Public Library was once a late 19th-century hotel that sat vacant and deteriorating for years before a $12.3 million adaptive reuse project revitalized the 1891 building. The design team of PSA-Dewberry, MKC Associates, and historic preservation specialist Jeff Wray Associates collaborated on the restoration of the 80,000-sf Richardson Romanesque building, once known as the Fort Piqua Hotel. The team restored a mezzanine above the lobby and repaired historic windows, skylight, massive fireplace, and other historic details. The basement, with its low ceiling and stacked stone walls, was turned into a castle-like children’s center. The Piqua Historical Museum is also located within the building.
| Feb 11, 2011
Justice center on Fall River harbor serves up daylight, sustainable elements, including eucalyptus millwork
Located on historic South Main Street in Fall River, Mass., the Fall River Justice Center opened last fall to serve as the city’s Superior and District Courts building. The $85 million facility was designed by Boston-based Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc., with Dimeo Construction as CM and Arup as MEP. The 154,000-sf courthouse contains nine courtrooms, a law library, and a detention area. Most of the floors have the same ceiling height, which will makes them easier to reconfigure in the future as space needs change. Designed to achieve LEED Silver, the facility’s elliptical design offers abundant natural daylight and views of the harbor. Renewable eucalyptus millwork is one of the sustainable features.
| Feb 11, 2011
Research facility separates but also connects lab spaces
California State University, Northridge, consolidated its graduate and undergraduate biology and mathematics programs into one 90,000-sf research facility. Architect of record Cannon Design worked on the new Chaparral Hall, creating a four-story facility with two distinct spaces that separate research and teaching areas; these are linked by faculty offices to create collaborative spaces. The building houses wet research, teaching, and computational research labs, a 5,000-sf vivarium, classrooms, and administrative offices. A four-story outdoor lobby and plaza and an outdoor staircase provide orientation. A covered walkway links the new facility with the existing science complex. Saiful/Bouquet served as structural engineer, Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers served as MEP, and Research Facilities Design was laboratory consultant.
| Feb 11, 2011
A feast of dining options at University of Colorado community center, but hold the buffalo stew
The University of Colorado, Boulder, cooked up something different with its new $84.4 million Center for Community building, whose 900-seat foodservice area consists of 12 micro-restaurants, each with its own food options and décor. Centerbrook Architects of Connecticut collaborated with Denver’s Davis Partnership Architects and foodservice designer Baker Group of Grand Rapids, Mich., on the 323,000-sf facility, which also includes space for a career center, international education, and counseling and psychological services. Exterior walls of rough-hewn, variegated sandstone and a terra cotta roof help the new facility blend with existing campus buildings. Target: LEED Gold.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Iowa surgery center addresses both inpatient and outpatient care
The 12,000-person community of Carroll, Iowa, has a new $28 million surgery center to provide both inpatient and outpatient care. Minneapolis-based healthcare design firm Horty Elving headed up the four-story, 120,000-sf project for St. Anthony’s Regional Hospital. The center’s layout is based on a circular process flow, and includes four 800-sf operating rooms with poured rubber floors to reduce leg fatigue for surgeons and support staff, two substerile rooms between each pair of operating rooms, and two endoscopy rooms adjacent to the outpatient prep and recovery rooms. Recovery rooms are clustered in groups of four. The large family lounge (left) has expansive windows with views of the countryside, and television monitors that display coded information on patient status so loved ones can follow a patient’s progress.
