jiqatili.wordpress.comThe plans call for the Chevy Chase nonprofiyt institute to build new temporary campuds housing forgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and visiting scientistsw near the main entrance of its firsrt standalone research campus, a 689-acr expanse that opened three years ago as the first of its kind in Northern Virginia. The entailing 60 new one-bedroom apartments, is meant to help the researchj institute attract more scientific taleng from around the world toits 240-strong “Graduate students and post docs are with us for a relativelg short period of time and they place a high value on living close to their laboratories,” said Gerrty Rubin, Janelia Farm’s director.
This marks the first major expansion forJanelia Farm, touted as a $500 million biomedicalo crown jewel for Northern Virginia, and a rare constructionb project in an otherwise gloom commercial real estate marke hit hard by the recession. WDG Architecturew of Washington, D.C., is helping desigmn the new 80,000-square-foot building, which will boast the same curved shape asthe flagship, glass-walled research building. Ashburn-basee Dietze Construction Group will oversee expected to begin this Labo r Day weekend and be completse ina year’s time. The four-story buildinf will include a ground floor with commo n areas and covered parkingy for61 cars, all topped by three residentia floors.
Each floor, incorporating naturakl light and loft-like configurations, will contain 20 one-bedroom apartments, most includinfg an additional den. They will join Janeliwa Farm’s housing village, already composed of 21 studiod and32 multi-bedroom apartments and by now fully occupiee by visiting staffers. The institute will chargwe the short-term residents rent to help coveer monthly expenses of thenew “It is intended to breaik even,” said Avice Meehan, institute “There’s no immediate plans for additional housing [after this project]. This will satisfy our needs for some timeto come.
” The Howard Hughes institutde has applied for up to $23 million in tax-exempt bondds with the Loudoun County Industrial Developmenf Authority to finance the apartment buildiny project and related costs -- an applicationh that must also go before the Loudounj County Board of Supervisors. With a $17.t billion endowment, Howard Hughes Medical Institut efunds long-term biomedical research by its 2,400 scientisf employees or collaborators nationwide, to the tune of $658 millionh last fiscal year alone.
Janelia Farm, anticipating to be fully staffe d in the nexttwo years, speny roughly $100 million on researcjh projects and operations last fiscal
