Science + Technology Design
Project Portfolio
About CMTA
CMTA was founded in 1968 and is recognized as a national leader in high performance, sustainable design within the engineering industry. Our firm has leveraged our expertise in high performance, energy-efficient design into a nationwide practice that includes consulting engineering, performance contracting and zero energy design, technology solutions, and commissioning services.
CMTA prides itself on its data-driven, performance-based design process. Performance-based design uses benchmarking of our projects’ real-world energy usage as a challenge to our engineers to continuously improve energy performance. CMTA’s first signature performance-based design project was Richardsville Elementary School, the nation’s first operational Zero Energy school. Since then, our Zero Energy projects have led our firm into the national spotlight.
Because we walk the talk, we are true partners vested in sharing our knowledge with our clients. Our corporate headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky and our Lexington, Kentucky offices are both zero energy buildings with perfect ENERGY STAR scores. And our CMTA Energy Solutions corporate office in Louisville is the first in the U.S. to operate as Zero Energy and achieve WELL Gold certification. CMTA strives to create strong relationships with building owners and managers while also focusing on the health and comfort of the people who live, work, and play in spaces we design.
CMTA Headquarters Campus Louisville, Kentucky
University of Indiana
Bloomington, Regional Academic Health Center
Bloomington, Indiana
University of Kentucky, Simulation Lab Lexington, Kentucky
Technology + Security Expertise
We provide comprehensive technology solutions for science + tech clients nationally. Our team understands that today’s modern laboratories and research centers are seeing an increase in technology to meet staff needs. Therefore, our team strives to design, integrate, streamline, and procure systems to be as simple as they can be.
Our technology/security team brings decades of experience designing lowvoltage systems for the science + tech markets across the country. We design technology to be a staff multiplier, increasing efficiency and allowing the staff greater flexibility as they perform their duties, and ensuring safety.
Another key feature of our team’s focus is flexibility and expandability. Technology is a rapidly advancing in these fields and our team designs to provide flexibility in the short-term and expandability for future needs. We achieve these results while maintaining a focus on bottom-line costs. We believe that the key to managing these criteria successfully is to engage the facility owner and the design team at the start of a project. Our team leads charrettes and work groups to gather input and develop a technology and security plan that achieves the client’s goals. This project also creates buy-in from the design team, departmentlevel end-users, and facility managers alike.
Cleanroom Expertise
CMTA’s experience includes a wide variety of cleanroom and controlled environments — many that serve biomed, pharmaceutical, research, manufacturing and micro-electronics industries. These spaces require extreme attention to detail to ensure the space is designed appropriately. We work with building owner’s to understand their exact needs and specifications around ventilation, temperature, humidity, filtration, and more.
Recent Cleanroom Projects
– Technology Corporation Semiconductor Manufacturing and Data Center, Confidential
– Biological Company, New Manufacturing, R&D, and Logistics Space, Confidential
– Medical Device Company Manufacturing Lab Renovation, Confidential
– UK Center for Applied Energy Research, Lexington, Kentucky
– UofL Regenerex Cleanrooms, Louisville, Kentucky
– Upsher-Smith Laborator, Maple Grove, Minnesota
– Honeywell Cleanroom, Plymouth, Minnesota
– North Dakota State University, Dunbar Hall Cleanroom, Fargo, North Dakota
– Grand Forks Air Force Base, Hanger 605 Cleanrooms, Grand Forks, North Dakota
– Essentia Inpatient Pharmacy Cleanroom, Fargo, North Dakota
– North Carolina Murdock Research Institute, Kannapolis, North Carolina
Essentia Health Inpatient Pharmacy Fargo, North Dakota
Science + Technology
When it comes to science and technology, we understand the importance of designing a space that supports state-of-the-art equipment and technology while fostering innovation and focusing on life safety. Due to the intricacies of these spaces, we also encourage input from the owner and work directly with equipment suppliers to design systems specific to the owner’s needs.
Our team brings decades of experience designing science and technology spaces for commercial, higher education, federal, and healthcare clients. Examples of our clientele include the National Institutes of Health, MedImmune, and numerous hospitals and universities across the country. Our team also has project experience with animal care and treatment facilities, many accredited by USDA.
18M Square Feet
$4B+ Construction Costs
North Dakota State University, Veterinary Diagnostics Lab Fargo, North Dakota
Schuman Campus Carbon Reduction Plan
Ecolab| Eagan, Minnesota
CMTA performed an decarbonization study of Ecolab’s Schuman campus, a 600,000 SF multi-building research campus. This engagement involved the assessment of existing campus infrastructure, operations, energy usage, carbon emissions and water usage. Through a series of workshops, the team and stakeholders detailed potential facility improvements and energy conservation measures to create a campus masterplan focusing on drastic resource usage reduction, capital improvements, overall estimated cost of investment, and implementation schedule to meet the goals for a net zero energy campus. The resulting plan aligns with the client’s ESG goals to provide a road map to halve carbon emissions by 2030 and drastically reduce operational carbon and water usage to achieve net zero by 2050.
The team compared many options moving forward for optimization of onsite energy performance with respect to cost. In addition, the team explored ways to apply the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to provide a savings opportunity for the client.
Ultimately, the team calculated the campus needs 9.5MW of generation to achieve on-site zero energy capabilities and building electrification. We calculated that the campus has a generation potential of 12.2MW of on-site renewable generation.
Project Energy Goals
– 50% Site Operational Carbon reduction by 2030
– Zero Site Operational Carbon and 50% Potable Water Reduction by 2050
– 100% Renewable Electricity by 2030
Project at a Glance
Size: 600,000 SF
Team: Ned Rector, Brent Wavra, Mick Stousland
Client Contact: Dale Alexander, dale.alexander@ecolab.com, (651) 293.4022
Confidential Lab Client
Virginia
Laboratory AHU Replacement
CMTA worked with a confidential lab client and CBRE to design replacements for 3 central Air Handling Units. These custom units collectively supply approximately 170,000 of 100% OA to over 100,000 SF of Laboratory spaces within the facility, which operate 24/7/365 and require specific temperature and humidity control, UV disinfection, and integration into the building’s glycol energy recovery system. In addition to keeping the building fully operational throughout, the project was further complicated by the constrained retrofit nature of the installations in the sub-grade Central Plant, which required consideration for a phased delivery and construction process, as well as a temporary AHU located outside the building but connected to the internal Central Plant’s chilled and hot water services.
During the feasibility phase, CMTA performed a thorough analysis of the buildings’ previous, current, and future intended uses to ensure the new equipment provided a long term solution that met the client’s quickly expanding operational goals while maintaining focus on increasing the overall energy performance of the facility, reducing operational costs, and ensuring the continued safety and health of the employees.
Cost: $4,000,000
Completed: Est. 2023
T-Spot Laboratory
CMTA worked with a confidential lab client, CBRE, and Gensler to design a new Tuberculosis Laboratory. This project involved multiple complexities in transitioning traditional office/conferencing space into a full compliant and operational laboratory. This included providing new electrical service with generator and UPS backup power delivery, a new AHU and integrated exhaust system with glycol heat recovery loop, and expansion of the building’s laboratory gas and water services into the new area of work. The project was further complicated by the adjacency to the main Atrium Lobby and Cafeteria areas of the building which required heavy attention to aesthetic detail.
Cost: $1,000,000
Completed: August 2022
Ground Floor Laboratories
CMTA is currently working alongside CBRE, and Ware Malcomb to relocate three major laboratories. This scope includes renovating approximately 12,000 SF of existing office space into new BSL-2 Laboratories, including their Molecular Oncology, Histology Pathology, and Flow departments, as well as new administrative support spaces for those Laboratories. This project involves multiple complexities in transitioning traditional office/conferencing space into a fully compliant and operational Laboratory.
Cost: $3,500,000
Completed: Est. November 2023
Corporate Campus Phase II — Office + Lab Space
SICK, Inc. | Bloomington, Minnesota
CMTA is serving as the MEP engineer for phase II of SICK, Inc.’s new corporate campus in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Germanbased company is a global manufacturer of sensor and safety solutions for industrial applications, and has been part of the Minnesota business community since the 1970s. The new campus will be completed in multiple phases, with phase I slated for completion in 2022, and phase II in 2026.
Phase II includes a 135,000 square-foot new building containing office, training, and laboratory spaces. The building will be connected to the existing building via skyway.
Also included in phase II is a new parking ramp to accommodate additional employees and future growth. It’s estimated that the new SICK corporate campus will bring over 700 jobs to the Bloomington area.
Project at a Glance
Completion: 2026 (estimated)
Size: 135,000 SF
Project Type: New Facility
Houston Advanced Research Center
The Woodlands, Texas
The Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) built a new campus on 3.5 acres adjacent to its existing campus. HARC, a non-profit established in 1982, serves as a hub for basic research and technology development. The center focuses on sustainable development with emphasis on sustainability issues providing independent analysis on energy, air, and water issues to people seeking scientific answers and operating as a research hub finding solutions for a sustainable future.
Aligning with HARC’s sustainable mission, the two-story building was designed to reduce energy consumption by approximately 70% and has achieved LEED Platinum. To reach this goal, the project was designed to be highly energy efficient with minimal water consumption.
The organization uses the facility as a teaching tool to demonstrate how sustainable features can be used in commercial construction. The building’s high-performance design features include a budgetconscious thermally-vented rain screen, strategically placed exterior windows to allow the introduction of natural light while minimizing the impact on the heating and cooling system, geothermal heating and cooling systems, and an all-LED lighting system. In addition, a geothermal heat pump system is provided to air-condition the building. Besides being energy efficient, the geothermal systems also help reduce maintenance costs by eliminating exterior HVAC equipment.
Project at a Glance
Completion: 2017
Size: 20,000 SF
Cost: $6,500,000
Project Type: New Facility
Awards / Certifications:
– LEED Platinum
– Zero Energy
Aldevron Campus
Fargo, North Dakota
Aldevron is a company of forward-thinking, thought-leading, and innovative individuals working together to advance biological sciences worldwide. It’s the kind of company with a mission, vision, and values that resonate with us.
Our team was part of Aldevron’s first 70,000 square-foot office building design in Fargo. The current building, completed in 2018, is used for the production of DNA and protein products, while the expansion includes three new buildings. The first new building contains a 20,000 SF warehouse and distribution center. Given the nature of the space, temperature and humidity control are present at floor and mid-height, and are validated continuously per GMP standards.
The second building is an administration building, and the third is an industry-leading research and development center with technological operations and a training center.
The new facilities will support the company’s growth and accommodate more than 1,000 employees.
Project at a Glance
Completion: 2021
Size: 189,000 SF
Project Type: Addition & Renovation
Research + Development Center
Zeochem| Louisville, Kentucky
Zeochem is a Swiss company that was founded more than 200 years ago and has manufacturing plants across Europe and Asia. Its products are used and applied by several industries, such as food and beverage, chemical, pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals among several others. The global chemical company, which already has an operation and manufacturing plant in Louisville, needed additional space to support growth in the molecular sieve market. As respiratory diseases increase worldwide, the demand for medical oxygen and thus for lithium molecular sieves is rising.
CMTA served as the MEP engineer for this new facility which houses offices, meeting rooms, a state-of-the-art R&D center and QC laboratory. The laboratory area contains a host of lab gases, medical-grade compressed air, vacuum pump, acid waste, fume hoods and ovens. To ease future flexibility for the ever-changing needs of the research lab, underground sleeves were strategically placed. This allowed for new utilities to be reworked or added, keeping the sight line of the lab very clean and open.
In addition, CMTA designed the security systems, with integration to the adjacent manufacturing facility. Security was very important to this client. Access controls for the site and CCTV were included.
Project at a Glance
Completion: 2023
Size: 16,000 SF
Project Type: New Facility
Ecolab Advanced Design Center
Eagan, Minnesota
Ecolab is a global leader in water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services, with a focus on making the world cleaner, safer, and healthier.
Ecolab opened its Advanced Design Center in 2021. The 22,000 square-foot state-ofthe-art innovation center allows Ecolab’s global healthcare division to partner with medical device industry customers. With a focus on infection prevention solutions,
Ecolab is using the center to develop custom sterile barriers and equipment drapes for hospitals and surgery centers. The Advanced Design Center contains offices, collaboration spaces, a pre-fab pilot plant cleanroom, and a warehouse.
Project at a Glance
Completion: 2021
Size: 22,000 SF
Project Type: Renovation
Health Sciences Building
University of Cincinnati | Cincinnati, Ohio
CMTA provided full MEP design services for the University of Cincinnati’s new Health Sciences Building, which includes 117,000 square feet of classroom, laboratory, office, and open gathering spaces.
CMTA is proud to have overcome many unique design challenges, while meeting the high expectations of the University of Cincinnati, and their partner architecture firms. We were able to reduce energy needs while coordinating with designers to conceal the building’s MEP systems, and operate within the University’s traditional budget. By working closely with the construction management company, the design time was able to stay within the project budget without sacrificing user programming requirements.
Project at a Glance
Completion: 2019
Size: 117,000 SF
Cost: $48,000,000
Project Type: New Facility
Wake Forest Biotech Place
Wexford Science + Technology | Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Renovation and reuse project of the historic 5-story RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company Building 91 in downtown Winston Salem, NC. Project consisted of two connected buildings, sized at a nominal 268,523 gross square feet, which were demolished to the basic building structures and refitted with new mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems.
The new Wake Forest Biotech Place is a 242,000 SF state-of-the-art research/ lab facility containing wet labs, classroom space, a conference center, offices and a business accelerator. The largest tenant for this facility is Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center with spaces for the Departments of Physiology, Pharmacology, Biomedical Engineering, Immunology and Microbiology, and the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma.
The buildings were stripped to the basic building structure on the interior and refitted with new mechanical, HVAC and electrical systems, fire protection and vertical transportation systems to bring them up to current commercial code standards. Commissioning was provided from the Design Development Phase through the Warranty Phase to fulfill the requirements of Fundamental and Enhanced Commissioning, as described in LEED 2009 for Core & Shell, Energy & Atmosphere Prerequisite 1.
Project at a Glance Size: 242,000 SF
Cost: $100,000,000
Project Type: Historic Renovation
BioSquare Labs
Boston Medical Center / Boston University Medical Center | Boston, Massachusetts
BioSquare Discovery & Innovation Center (BDIC) combines state-of-the-art, research facilities with comprehensive tenant amenities and services, all within a hub for scientific innovation. CMTA was engaged to provide comprehensive energy assessment services for a 182,000 laboratory building that was constructed in 1998. The building houses the Boston University School of Dental Medicine classroom and research spaces, and two BSL-3 labs. The upper levels contain open lab areas with associated office and conference spaces. Additionally, the core areas include tissue culture, animal procedure rooms, cold rooms, autoclaves, and equipment rooms.
CMTA worked with Boston Medical Center (BMC), Boston University Medical Center (BUMC), and the local utility company to develop energy savings strategies to reduce the EUI (486/sf/yr) and utility cost of ~$2,550,000/year.
CMTA reviewed multiple energy conservation measures and multiple energy reduction items were identified. After discussion with BMC, BUMC, and the utility companies, it was decided to proceed with development of two major ECM concepts:
ECM-1: Reduce lab supply air changes (ACH) and implement thermostat setback during unoccupied hours.
ECM-2: Convert constant volume (CV) terminal boxes to variable air volume (VAV), reduce unoccupied ACH and implement thermostat setback in offices associated with laboratories during unoccupied hours.
After ECM 1 & 2 were implemented, the building EUI was reduced by 11% to 434 kbtu/sf/yr which translates to a cost savings of 15% ($360,000/yr).
Project at a Glance
Completion: 2018
Size: 182,000 SF
Cost: $8,500,000
Murdock Research Institute, Core Lab
North Carolina Research Campus | Kannapolis, North Carolina
A new 311,000 square-foot research facility that houses the David H. Murdock Research Institute showcases an 80,000 square-foot lab containing a strategic array of state-ofthe-art scientific equipment. The Core Lab is available for any research institute or company on the research campus.
The Core Lab building houses analytical chemistry labs, organic synthesis labs, clinical chemistry labs, radiochemistry lab, gamma radioisotope lab, Class 1,000 clean rooms, bio-specimen freezer facility, DNA analysis suites, immuno-bioassay lab, metabolomics lab, proteomics lab, fermentation facility; a 25,000 square-foot Vivarium, 5,000 square-foot animal imaging suite with cyclotron, cluster of vibrationsensitive imaging equipment with an MRI, and two floors for research tenants, also includes conference, training, and administrative space.
The facility utilizes lighting systems of low watt density, indoor air terminal units with CO2 control, heat reclaim via heat wheels, and run-around loops. In addition, air distribution systems are of low-pressure drop type compatible with Labs-21 Initiatives.
Destined to be the catalyst of significant scientific discoveries in health and nutrition, the Murdock Research Institute houses the world’s first actively shielded 950 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.
Project at a Glance
Completion: 2009
Size: 311,000 SF
Cost: $310,000,000
Project Type: New Facility
Awards / Certifications: LEED Silver
Research + Development Renovations
MITRE Corporation | Bedford, Massachusetts
MITRE operates federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) supporting various U.S. government agencies, such as the Department of Defense, in the aviation, defense, healthcare, homeland security, and cybersecurity fields, among others.
CMTA has provided MEP/FP services to MITRE Corp for more than 20 years. This has included campus wide infrastructure upgrades, energy conservation upgrades, new construction and renovation projects. As part of this partnership, CMTA has renovated or designed new facilities for more that 50,000 SF of laboratory space including BSL3 labs.
Some relevant projects are listed below.
– Advanced Manufacturing Lab, including rapid prototyping space
– BSL2 Lab Schematic Study Evaluation
– Collaborative Systems Lab Relocation
– HP Laser Lab
– Aquatic Maritime Systems Engineering Lab
– Data Center and UPS Design
– Innovation Center
– Electric Power Generator Plant
– SCIF Space
– BioNet Lab Renovation
– Health Center
– Sonar Tank
Project at a Glance
Completion: On-going
Size: Various per project
Project Type: Renovation
Advanced Manufacturing Lab
Secure Space (SCIF)
More than 75 projects in the last 20 years
National Institutes of Health – Rockledge Center
Bethesda, Maryland
CMTA provided MEP consulting services to help define the detailed scope of work necessary to meet GSA’s lease obligations. This process included performing a detailed existing MEP systems condition assessment and LEED Gap analysis.
Attention to sustainable design principles is important both for the comfort and well-being of NIH staff and the conservation of resources and government funds. The green goals focus on the principles of energy conservation, intelligent building control systems, resource and waste management, use of environmentally responsible materials with recycled content, low emissions from volatile organic compounds (VOCs), durability, and local availability. Incorporating natural light deep into the space (along with LED light fixtures) is an important strategy for both energy savings and encouraging a productive work environment.
Highlights:
– Building 8 Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases
– Building 10 complex Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center and Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center
– Building 49 Silvio O. Conte Building
– National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
– Building 50 Louis Stokes Laboratory Autoclave
– Building 11 Reverse Osmosis Plant
– US Drug Enforcement Agency Drug analysis Lab
Project at a Glance
Completion: 2020
Size: 500,000 SF
Cost: $90,000,000
Project Type: Existing Facility Planning & Design
Awards / Certifications: LEED Gold
