The Time Has Come for Science Parks Again

AUSTIN, Texas - Dec. 19, 2022 - PRLog -- The commercial office market has been dealt a heavy blow in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But recent breakthroughs in health science research, such as the long-anticipated coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer BioNTech, are generating renewed interest in science real estate projects on the part of commercial property developers.

Two recently greenlit projects exemplify this emerging science park construction trend.

The first project is a new life science hub on the west side of Manhattan. Taconic Partners has engaged the architecture firm Perkins & Will to design the new facility on the site of a former auto showroom. When completed in early 2023, the new building will become part of an emerging life science cluster on Manhattan's West Side.

The second new science park development is taking place in Philadelphia, within the University Park redevelopment zone (located west of the Schuylkill River near Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania), which is becoming the heart of Philly's healthcare, life sciences, and biotech industries. The new 250,000 ft.² eight-story building, designed by The Sheward Partnership, will feature advanced sustainability and energy efficiency features allowing it to achieve LEED and WELL v2 platinum certifications.

These two new projects are breathing life into what has been a disappointingly moribund commercial property development market up and down the East Coast.

Hopefully, it signals a new positive economic trend that coincides with the dawn of the New Year and the promise of the widespread coronavirus vaccine program that will allow people to once again return to work.

But these new developments have also piqued our curiosity about science parks and how they came to be. It turns out they have a long and interesting history that's closely aligned with some of the major developments in American health science, consumer goods manufacturing, military and aerospace applications, and more.

The Age Of Discovery And The Development Of The Modern Science Park

When we think of Tesla and Menlo Park today, we think of Silicon Valley in California, where Elon Musk makes Tesla cars, and Menlo Park is the home of SRI International, the famed research institute founded by Stanford University.

But if we turn the clock back to the late 19th century and asked someone about Menlo Park or Tesla, we would get quite a different answer.

Read more...https://formaspace.com/articles/tech-lab/science-parks-an...