by Shane Henson — December 3, 2012—HOK, a design, architecture, engineering and planning firm operating worldwide, announced that it has been selected as lead architect for the Ri.MED Biomedical Research and Biotechnology Center (BRBC) slated to be built near Palermo, Sicily, in southern Italy. HOK’s team was selected from a field of 14 entrants in an international design competition.
The 334,000-square-foot facility will be a global hub for biomedical research and development and will be managed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). To align with Ri.MED’s sustainability goals, the team designed the BRBC campus to be one of the world’s most environmentally responsive and resource-efficient research facilities. The design aims to achieve a minimum of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification from the Green Building Council Italia.
HOK says its integrated design services for the BRBC will include architecture, interior design, sustainable design, high-performance building engineering, lighting, environmental graphics and landscape architecture.
In working on the project, HOK says it will leverage the considerable experience the firm has developed from designing other innovative health sciences facilities, including the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. The firm also served as lead designer for the University of Chicago’s William Eckhardt Research Center and The Francis Crick Institute’s biomedical research center in London.
The BRBC is expected to open in 2016 and, when fully operational, to employ more than 600 scientists and other staff.
