Source: PCL CanadaPlace: J.C. Wilt Infectious Diseases Research Centre
Address: 745 Logan Avenue (Map)
Architect: Moody and Moore (1979); Smith Carter (2009)
Size: 5,500 sq m
Background:
ca. 1980. Source: Winnipeg Building IndexThis facility was constructed in 1979 - 1980 as the Province of Manitoba's W. M. Ward Technical Services Laboratory. It provided sample testing and research in toxicology, consumer products and some forensic science.
The lab was privatized in 1996, known as Enviro-Test, though it appears that the building itself remained under provincial ownership. By 2006 the site was vacant.
In 2007 the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) purchased the building from the province for $3.2m with the intent of moving the National HIV and Retrovirology Labs (NHRL) from Ottawa to Winnipeg.
The NHRL falls under the National Microbiology Laboratory but there is not enough physical space at the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health ("The Virology Lab" on Arlington) to house it. (That facility is wrapping up its own multi-million dollar expansion.)
As the building is 30 years old, PHAC is spending over over $40m to upgrade what is now called the J.C. Wilt Infectious Diseases Research Centre to a Biosafety Containment Level 2 facility.
In 2009 Winnipeg-based Smith Carter Architects and Engineers were hired to design the new space. They built the Arlington lab and have since gone on to work on similar facilities around the world.
The J.C. Wilt Infectious Diseases Research Centre is expected to open in early 2013.
Related:
Winnipeg Lab and Space Optimization Treasury Board
Overview of construction tender Merx.com
JC Wilt Project Description PCL Construction
New Disease Lab in the Making Winnipeg Free Press
For more on John Charles Wilt
Photo Updates:
April 2011
June 2011
September 2011
December 2011
January 2012
March 2012
August 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment