The University of Central Florida Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences Building

Tony Harding, Whiting-Turner
Dennis Renders, Whiting-Turner

The University of Central Florida Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences building is a 196,000 GSF biomedical research sciences facility that consists of vivarium, BSL-3 laboratories, research labs, specialty support labs, lab offices and administrative space. The mission of the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences is to provide undergraduate and graduate programs that build research programs focused on cancer and cardiovascular, neurological, and infectious diseases. Faculty within the facility is now working to take science from bench to bedside.

This was the very first building to break ground on the site of the new Lake Nona Medical City, and was completed in 2009. This 650-acre health and life sciences park is a landmark for Central Florida and a premier location for medical care, research and education. The building is part of a biomedical cluster that also includes the University's College of Medicine Medical Education Building, the University of Florida Research & Academic Center, the Sanford-Burnham Institute for Medical Research, a new Veterans Administration Medical Center and the Nemours Children's Hospital. Collaboration is engaged amongst these institutions, as well as additional major hospitals in the Central Florida region.

This facility was designed by HOK Architects and constructed by The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company. The University required that our firms engage in a design-build approach, while working under separate contracts – a very unique approach to project execution. Our team was successful not only in providing a quality research facility on time and within budget, but were also able to achieve a LEED Silver designation by the USGBC. Our success from this project has since allowed us to carry many of the same team members forward in a design-build partnership to successfully construct the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in Port St. Lucie, FL, as well as currently working together on the University of South Florida's Heart Health Institute in Tampa, FL.

Learning Objectives

TBD

Biographies:

Tony Harding joined Whiting-Turner in 2005 and has more than 14 years of experience in the construction industry.  He has devoted the past eight years of his career focused on leading science and technology facilities in the State of Florida.  Following his completion of the UCF Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, he moved forward as Whiting-Turner's lead Project Manager on the VGTI Florida Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in Port St. Lucie, preconstruction manager for the Windsor / Florida Hospital BioResearch Center in Orlando, and now as project lead on the USF Heart Health Institute project in Tampa.

Dennis Renders joined Whiting-Turner in 2007 and has more than eight years of experience in the construction industry.  His first project assignment with Whiting-Turner was as an Assistant Project Manager on the UCF Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences at Lake Nona, to which he was seamlessly committed to throughout both design and construction.  He then moved forward in the design-build (with HOK Architects) management of the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in Port St. Lucie, and is looking forward to being involved in the management efforts of the USF Heart Health Institute project in Tampa, alongside Tony as well.

Sustainability has been a key focus on many of Tony and Dennis' past projects.  Their certification efforts have included: the University of Central Florida Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, LEED Silver; Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, LEED Gold; Windsor/Florida Hospital BioResearch Center, Pursuing LEED Silver; USF Heart Health Institute, Pursuing LEED Gold.

 

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