The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have completed the construction and commissioning of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), in Manhattan, Kansas. Flad recently attended the ribbon-cutting held at the new facility to celebrate the achievement of this significant, 17-year-long project with project team members, officials from the DHS and the USDA, and key political figures from Kansas who were instrumental in securing this facility for the state of Kansas.
The 520,000-square-foot facility is the first U.S. laboratory equipped with dedicated large animal BSL-4 containment space – only the fifth facility worldwide with this capability. Addressing potential threats from bio- and agro-terrorism and naturally occurring animal diseases, NBAF will support research and development of countermeasures to safeguard the nation's food supply against transboundary, emerging, and zoonotic animal diseases – helping to protect the nation's agricultural economy and public health.
The entire campus was designed to meet aggressive sustainability goals and energy efficiency targets rarely realized in high-containment facilities, ultimately becoming the first and only large-scale federal biocontainment laboratory in the country to achieve LEED Gold certification.
NBAF replaces the 65-year-old, BSL-3 Plum Island Animal Disease Center and represents an unprecedented collaboration between the DHS and USDA. Though the DHS will remain a strategic partner for NBAF, ownership and operation will formally transfer to the USDA moving forward.
Joint Venture partners Flad Architects and Perkins&Will shared leadership of this project.
June 09, 2023