Caliper Cleanroom Build Wraps Up
Maynard-based builder J.M. Coull is getting used to working with Hopkinton-based Caliper Life Sciences, which was purchased last year by PerkinElmer Inc.
The building firm has done four construction jobs for Caliper before, including renovations and additions at its Hopkinton facilities. But the recent renovation of a cell-manufacturing cleanroom presented particular learning curves and challenges, said Charlie Spicer, pre-construction project manager at J.M. Coull.
Long-Distance Learning
PerkinElmer is creating the 7,000-square-foot cleanroom as a part of its new Personalized Health Innovation Center of Excellence, which is meant to be a space for its various scientists to collaborate on new products, specifically, in the areas of genomics, imaging, biomarkers and biotherapeutics.
The clean room will be used to manufacture a microfluidic cell, which researchers use to improve detection and screening in the development of diagnostic tests and medicines.
Though Caliper specializes in microfluidic products, Spicer said the particular cell, which PerkinElmer currently makes in California, is new to those who will work in the PerkinElmer lab.
"The folks there had to learn the (manufacturing) process," he said. "It wasn't like we were dealing with local group already familiar what their needs were. While we were learning about it, they were, too."
Several members of the project team traveled to the California facility in the spring to get a look at the setup there. The design phase took nearly five months, which is longer than usual, but Spicer said it has helped provide the best information for the collaboration between his firm and helping project architect Gorman Richardson Lewis Architects of Hopkinton.
Sandy And Other Challenges
In addition to figuring out the ideal setup for PerkinElmer's Hopkinton staff, J.M. Coull also had to plan space needs for groups coming in or expanding internally.
The innovation center is located in a new 60,000-square-foot, three-story building on Caliper's Elm Street campus, which is pretty busy these days with all the activity.
"There is very little of the campus that is not touched," Spicer said, so providing parking accommodations during the phased move-in was also tricky, he said.
The project also includes a wastewater treatment system in a mechanical room, so ionized water used in the manufacturing process can be discharged to the sewer, said Spicer. And contractors found a rather large cache of buried tree stumps on the land that had to be removed.
Mother Nature provided her own type of challenge.
NStar was preparing to do electrical and gas upgrades at the site in late October when Hurricane Sandy hit. Suddenly, Spicer said, the utility's electrical division had its hands full.
But despite that, the project, which began in August, will be finished by the end of this month, Spicer said.
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