The facility's purpose will be cross-disciplinary research. "This unique campus will develop and share the advanced technology resources needed for the cutting-edge, interdisciplinary scientific work that will characterize the medical research of the future," HHMI president Thomas R. Cech said upon announcing plans for the massive project a year ago.

Temporarily called Janelia Farm research campus, after the property on which it will sit, the project will ultimately consist of 750,000-sf of research labs, conference center space, and housing spread out over a 281-acre parcel of land in Loudoun County. The housing will accommodate visiting researchers, as the state-of-the-art facility will be open to chemists, physicists, computer scientists and biologists from all over the globe. HHMI acquired the sprawling property in late 2000 for $53.7 million.

"The search for an architect is something we've been doing for about the last 18 months," HHMI's Jim Keeley tells GlobeSt.com. "We conducted a series of collaborative meetings with potential architects and Janelia's planning committee. This was done with a number of different firms, and we ended up paring the list down to three firms in November before making the final selection."