SAN DIEGO—McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., one of the nation's premiere research laboratory builders, this week topped off the last concrete pour for the three-story, 45,000-square-foot J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla. The laboratory facility, is located on a 1.75-acre scenic coastal site at 4120 Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla, Calif., within the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects (ZGF) is the architect.

Expected to be the most environmentally friendly and only “net zero energy” biological laboratory in the world, the new $39 million J. Craig Venter Institute will support approximately 125 scientists and other staff in their mission to further the Institute's goals in genomic research and policy. The location of the facility, on land leased from UCSD at the Scripps Upper Mesa, was chosen for its proximity to and potential for collaboration with the many renowned academic research centers in the La Jolla area.

“The project team is targeting LEED Platinum Certification,” said Robert Friedman, director of the J.Craig Venter Institute's California campus. “Through rigorous LEED tracking and high performance teaming, McCarthy has successfully maintained a smooth construction process and kept the project on schedule toward our targeted November 2013 completion date.”