Wednesday, September 28, 2011

McCarthy Begins Construction for J. Craig Venter Institute on UCSD La Jolla, CA Campus




SAN DIEGO, CA– McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (www.mccarthy.com), one of the nation’s premiere research laboratory builders, has begun construction for the much-anticipated J. Craig Venter Institute (top left rendering), La Jolla, a new 45,000-square-foot laboratory facility located at 4120 Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla, Calif., within the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus.

 A formal groundbreaking ceremony was held at the 1.75-acre scenic coastal site on Sept. 20.
  
Guest speakers included J. Craig Venter (middle right photo) Ph.D., founder and president of J. Craig Venter Institute; Marye Anne Fox, UCSD chancellor; San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders; David Brenner, M.D., vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine at UCSD; and Tony Haymet, Ph.D., director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, vice chancellor for marine sciences, and dean of the Graduate School of Marine Sciences at University of California.

 The $35 million facility, designed to be the most environmentally friendly and only “net zero energy” biological laboratory in the world, is envisioned to support approximately 125 scientists and other staff to further the Institute’s goals in genomic research and policy.  The location of the facility, on land leased from UCSD at the Scripps Upper Mesa, was chosen for its proximity to and potential for collaboration with the many renowned academic research centers in the La Jolla area.

Formed in 2006 through the merger of several affiliated institutes, the J. Craig Venter Institute is the world’s leading multidisciplinary genomic-focused organization, employing approximately 300 scientists and staff at locations in Rockville, Md., and San Diego. Calif.

 “We have carefully assembled a project team comprised of the nation’s top laboratory design and building professionals, and are delighted to have McCarthy execute our vision for this unprecedented facility,” said Robert Friedman (lower left photo), director of the J. Craig Venter Institute’s California campus.

“Representing the most ambitious sustainably designed biological research laboratory project ever to be built, the new J. Craig Venter Institute is integral to the Institute’s quest to perform the science needed to solve critical environmental and human health challenges.”

More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com .

Contact:  Bonnie Kutch, Director, 619-299-1010,  Kutch & Company
3904 Groton Street | Suite 203 | San Diego, California 92110


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