Design-Build Team Chosen for New Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
October 19, 2020
After reviewing project proposals from seven teams and narrowing it to three finalists earlier this year, a design-build team has been selected for construction of the new Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Iowa State University. The total cost of the facility, including construction of the building and its equipment is $75 million.
The Weitz Company, of Des Moines, and STRANG of Madison, Wisconsin, will build and design a new building that will address additional and contiguous space requirements for Iowa’s only fully accredited veterinary diagnostic laboratory.
“We look forward to working with Weitz and STRANG on this critical project,” said Dr. Dan Grooms, the Dr. Stephen G. Juelsgaard Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “Not only will the new VDL create state-of-the-art diagnostic laboratory space to help us meet our mission of protecting animal and public health, but the project will address biosafety containment and functional adjacencies for the highly integrated and interdependent laboratory sections that will be housed in the new structure.”
The new VDL will provide essential infrastructure for sample receiving and processing, pathology, bacteriology, necropsy, histopathology and an incinerator. The new construction will improve efficiency and effectiveness of the process flow while addressing critical issues of space quantity and quality and provide the necessary biosafety and biocontainment.
The project has been funded by a $63.5 million appropriation from the State of Iowa with additional funding from the VDL, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University and private donors.
Lead gifts to the new VDL have been provided by the Iowa Pork Producers Association and the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.
The VDL has been a national leader in protecting animal and human health since it was established in 1947. Processing more than 100,000 submissions a year – and more than a million tests in total – the laboratory plays a key role in ensuring animal health, including wildlife and companion animals; public health; world food safety; and the competitiveness of Iowa’s $32 billion animal agricultural industry.
The investment in the facility will greatly increase the state’s diagnostic service and discovery capabilities for current and future generations of Iowa’s livestock farmers. In addition, the new facility will help keep Iowa State at the forefront in discovery of emerging and re-emerging diseases, provide a rich caseload to teach future veterinary practitioners and make innovative discoveries regarding new methods to control and eradicate diseases.
Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2021 with a scheduled 2023 opening.
