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3/19/10 - Matan Companies and Morgan-Keller Inc. Host Tilt Up Party for the National Cancer Institute’s New Research Facility At Riverside Research Park

Matan Companies and Morgan-Keller, Inc. hosted a “tilt-up” party celebrating the construction progress for the National Cancer Institute’s 332,000-SF Advanced Technology Research Facility at Riverside Research Park in Frederick, MD. The goal of this state-of-the-art laboratory facility, slated for delivery in early 2012, is to enable scientists to more rapidly develop a new generation of highly targeted treatments for cancer patients.

“Tilt-up concrete construction is a proven method for building office buildings, retail centers, warehouses, and laboratories with speed, safety, and construction cost benefits,” said Karl Morris, Director of Development for Matan Companies. “In a tilt-up construction project, the building's walls are poured directly at the jobsite in large slabs of concrete called "tilt-up panels" or "tilt wall panels". These panels are then raised into position around the building's perimeter, forming the exterior walls.” Tilt-up construction allows general contractors to build a wide range of commercial buildings more quickly and with lower construction costs than what is typical for traditional masonry construction projects.

Morgan-Keller, Inc. (M-K) is constructing the core and shell of the National Cancer Institute building. Site work and construction of the core and shell will take approximately 16 months to complete. This project is comprised of five individual tilt-up concrete structures, connected via an atrium. Morgan-Keller, Inc. is one of Maryland’s largest and most respected commercial builders, with offices in Frederick and Columbia. Now in its 54th year of operation, M-K’s resume of recently completed projects include office buildings, retail centers, hotels, healthcare/biomedical, and several senior living facilities.

As part of the larger 177-acre Riverside Research Park, the National Cancer Institute’s 62-acre site will have expansion capacity for another 470,000 SF, reserved for life-science and advanced technology partner organizations. “This site will be the center of an intensive new effort to bring together government, industry, academic, and nonprofit partners, working side-by-side, utilizing technological resources second to none, to more rapidly translate our latest genetic and molecular discoveries about cancer into effective new treatments that benefit patients,” said John E. Niederhuber, M.D., Director of the National Cancer Institute. More information about the NCI’s Advanced Technology Partnerships Initiative (ATPI) can be found at www.atpihome.com.

NCI-Frederick, a government-owned, contractor-operated national laboratory, with SAIC-Frederick, Inc. as its prime contractor, is home to a cadre of researchers studying cancer and HIV/AIDS and is host to NCI’s Advanced Technology Program, which encompasses nanotechnology, high-performance computing, genomics, and biomedical imaging, among other areas. SAIC-Frederick, Inc. – a wholly owned subsidiary of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a Fortune 500® company (NYSE: SAI) – is the operations and technical support contractor for the National Cancer Institute’s research and development center in Frederick, Maryland. This is a national laboratory dedicated to rapidly translating basic research into new technologies for diagnosing, treating, and preventing cancer and AIDS. SAIC-Frederick maintains a full suite of advanced technologies in areas such as nanotechnology, genomics, and imaging; operates the federal government’s only drug and vaccine manufacturing facilities; operates the high-performance Advanced Biomedical Computing Center; and supports more than 300 clinical trials for patients in the United States and around the world. “NCI has identified an urgent need to convert basic research findings into effective cancer treatments that can be delivered to patients right away,” said Larry O. Arthur, Ph.D., President of SAIC-Frederick. “The consolidation of our operations into modern facilities will enable us to do just that, with the specific goal of shortening timelines, reducing costs, and increasing productivity—all of which will benefit cancer patients and people at risk for cancer.”