Nota Klentrou, right, discusses her research with, from left, President Jack Lightstone, St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley and Ian Brindle, Vice-President Research.
Nota Klentrou, right, discusses her research with, from left, President Jack Lightstone, St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley and Ian Brindle, Vice-President Research.
Summer activity is heating up at Brock’s $111-million research jewel as workers move into the final phase of constructing the Cairns Family Health and Bioscience Research Complex.
On Friday, June 24, about 150 scientists, supporters and government and University officials gathered in Pond Inlet to mark the milestone of Phase 1 completion. They also had a quick peek inside the building.
The first leg of the massive project represents completion of the building enclosure, as well as servicing and completing the base for electrical and mechanical systems.
Phase 2 work in the coming months will involve completing electrical and other systems; finishing drywall, painting and flooring; and moving in furniture, fixtures and equipment to make the facility operable.
Researchers are expected to start moving in by early spring 2012.
Project manager David Main said the impressive progress to date is a credit to “a top quality team of consultants and contractors.”
“We’ve been able to maintain an aggressive schedule, and we’re on budget,” said Main, of MHPM Project Managers Inc. “The rest of the work will take place in a fully enclosed building, so we should not have any impact from inclement weather.”
The project is named for the family of Roy Cairns, who contributed a $10-million impact gift to help complete the facility. The project has also received $38 million from the federal government’s Knowledge Infrastructure Program; $33.5 million from the government of Ontario and $2 million from the Niagara Region.
The five-floor, 169,000-square-foot complex will be home to a host of leading researchers, including at least six Canada Research Chairs and Ontario distinguished researchers in biotechnology, green chemistry, plant pathology, and science and health. Research will include work on diabetes, cancer, infectious diseases, tropical diseases, West Nile virus and malaria.
Its major assets include a synthetic chemistry laboratory; a Containment Level 3 (CL3) laboratory; greenhouse; photophysical sciences laboratory; child and youth studies laboratory space; the Niagara campus of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine; and a business incubator to develop new enterprises based on knowledge and innovations developed by Cairns researchers.
The Cairns building was designed by Architects Alliance, in association with Boston-based Payette. The construction manager is Ellis Don, and the project manager is MHPM.
