700 N. Frederick (Progress Drive)

Summarize the project's program, features and achievements?

Matan Companies, a leading real estate development and investment firm, developed this 198,000 square feet two-building development in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which is now occupied entirely by AstraZeneca—a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company.

Please communicate any engineering complexities or unique features of the panel design for this project?

To support the high-end use and satisfy the local jurisdiction's requirements, several architectural features were included in the design and presented challenges to how the tilt-up panels were constructed. First, a series of faux wooden louvers were incorporated into the primary entrances of each facility, necessitating close coordination with the glazing for the spacing of the support attachments so it would blend into the mullion system. This also required recesses in the exterior of the panel legs for spandrel glass. Second, each building had column-free corners on each end similar to a Class A office building design. The panels required temporary legs for erection and robust connections to the adjacent panel for stability. Third, a narrow wing-wall that required hidden connections within the panel joint was included on the entrance-facing sidewall. Fourth, a spandrel panel above the roof line was included to project depth on the face of the building. Finally, all the offset entryways and corners on each building had eyebrow features. The design of the panel parapets took into consideration the twisting these features would impart through a series of embedded items for structural steel support and light gage connections developed on the backside of the panels.

What is the potential for this project's impact on the community and/or environment?

Maryland's I-270 BioTech Corridor, stretching from Northern Bethesda to Frederick, is home to one of the largest life sciences clusters in the U.S. with 500+ biotech firms, 2,000 life science companies, federal laboratories, federal agencies, world-renowned medical universities and centers, and plenty of funding and resources. Right now, the biggest challenge to the growth of the biotech industry along the I-270 corridor is a lack of suitable lab space. Progress Labs provides the needed lab and QC space to support manufacturing. The facility will bring in 1,000 new life science jobs to the Frederick area.