Amgen, the world’s largest independently owned biotechnology company, makes a popular drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. In 2001, the company began building the research and technology center on 29 acres in Seattle’s Interbay area. The center will expand the company’s ability to study the human immune system to develop treatments for cancer, asthma, inflammatory, infectious and cardiovascular diseases. MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions was selected to work on the new center, which consists of three lab buildings connected to a common office building. PROJECT STATISTICS Contract: $16,683,417 Area: 227,000 Square Feet Systems: MacDonald-Miller Facility Solution's scope of work includes: Furnishing and installing HVAC, piping and plumbing utilities Installing lab gases – vacuum acid waste, vent, steam and process cooling water Providing full 3-D coordination drawings, allowing prefabrication of some piping Installing steam to hot water heat exchangers, PRV stations, hydronic heat to VAV boxes, vacuum pumps and domestic plumbing Providing structural design and fabrication of seismic-rate pipe supports Installation of seismic ball joints in piping systems. Special Notes: Installation of the piping and plumbing was considered to be the most complicated portion of the project. The labs have numerous systems that nest with other systems and had to be installed in sequences that streamline impacts, all adding to the coordination challenges of the project. Bracing the buildings to withstand a major earthquake was costly and complicated, but absolutely necessary to avoid the loss of research data and uninterrupted business operations. The buildings are designed to allow the basement to move laterally as much as 18 inches from the upper structure. For the piping to remain operational during a quake, ball joints had to be installed in the piping systems, and piping had to be located 18 inches away from the columns.