Project Data:

Completion Date:     7/19/2021

Square Footage:      260000

Building Use:           Manufacturing and Office Facilities

Project Description:

Kite Pharma is a pioneer in cell and gene therapy research. Its new Cell Therapy Manufacturing Facility in Urbana, MD, produces T-Cell therapies focused on life-changing cancer treatments. This cutting-edge facility includes a 200,000 SF manufacturing building and a 60,000 SF office building. The team designed the facility with a focus on transparency and the efficient connection of employees between the labs and production space in the manufacturing facility with the workstations and services of the office building. Movement between these two areas revolves around a central courtyard with a protected space to relax and dine with employee amenities such as table tennis, bocce ball, and a putting green. The two-story office building comprises an open work environment with collaboration and training spaces, a fitness center, a full-service kitchen, servery, and dining space. The commercial cGMP cell therapy manufacturing building includes QC labs, GMP warehouse, and production clean rooms containing state-of-the-art process utilities and equipment. Bright, sleek interior finishes convey transparency and cleanliness of the facility to all who walk through the adjacent corridors. Independent HVAC systems and a suite separation strategy within the manufacturing facility allow individual spaces to operate or shut down for cleaning or alterations. The facility includes space for future expansion to double the manufacturing production capacity while normal facility operations continued.

The new facility will aid a costly CAR-T therapy manufacturing process that genetically codes a patient’s T cells. Blood must be taken from a patient, cryopreserved, shipped to a manufacturing facility, reprogrammed and manufactured in the lab, and then shipped back for infusion into the patient, all in the shortest time possible.

The lab and office space surround a central sky-lit “town hall” with a large screen, mezzanine and areas for casual conversations and formal company-wide live-streamed presentations. Additionally, the office building receives substantial daylight with floor-to-ceiling glazing shaded with horizontal aluminum blades and overhangs. Vertical mullions, spaced ten feet apart, provide sweeping views of the surrounding countryside to the west and south.

Town Hall can be seen beyond the development lab though a floor to ceiling glazed enclosure, allowing natural light through the facility and promoting the connection between the vital work within the lab and the supporting administration.

Construction was streamlined, and on-site waste reduced using prefabricated wall and ceiling panels composed of a mix of glazed and powered panels that are quick to assemble and provide flexibility for everchanging production processes. Independent HVAC systems and a suite separation strategy allow individual spaces to operate or shut down for cleaning or alterations.

The south facing glazed connector is elevated by the drop in grade along the site, providing views to the pastoral surroundings and an overhang that protects the glass from the full exposure of the sun. Employees enter with a direct connection to the central spine, the heart of the manufacturing facility where glazed cleanroom walls open the lab to the skylit corridor and the cGMP Warehouse beyond.

Firm Name:              EwingCole

Completion Date:     7/19/2021

Square Footage:      260000

Building Use:           Manufacturing and Office Facilities

Location:                 Urbana, MD

Project Description:
Design for Well-being:
Manufacturing With A Purpose
Kite Pharma’s new Cell Therapy Manufacturing Facility produces Novel T-Cell therapies focused on life changing cancer treatments. Located on a 20-acre site in Urbana, Maryland, this cutting-edge facility includes a 200,000 SF manufacturing building and a 60,000 SF office building. The facility design emphasized transparency and the efficient connection of employees between the labs and production spaces in the manufacturing facility with the workstations and services of the office building. Movement between these two areas revolves around a central courtyard that serves as a protected space to relax and dine with employee amenities such as table tennis, bocce ball, and a putting green.

A Central Space To Gather The Team
The lab and office space surround a central sky-lit “town hall” with a large screen, mezzanine and areas for casual conversations and formal company-wide live-streamed presentations. Additionally, the office building receives substantial daylight with floor-to-ceiling glazing shaded with horizontal aluminum blades and overhangs. Vertical mullions, spaced ten feet apart, provide sweeping views of the surrounding countryside to the west and south.

Productivity Spaces
Kite employs a highly-skilled labor force and with that comes a responsibility to create a collaborative culture where training and interactions are prized. Kite suggested an alternative to the common term ‘amenity space’, preferring to think of the communal areas as productivity spaces. The facility will operate 24/7 and these productivity spaces create the necessary opportunities during the day or night to motivate employees to communicate and work productively whether in the cafeteria with a full service kitchen, in a pocket park or in a training room. Each of these spaces surround the central Town Hall and benefit from the natural light.


Design for Change:
Two Parts, One Goal
Kites first of its kind cancer treatment therapies required a first of its kind facility. The therapy and facility type is innovative in its function and design yet at the same time is designed to allow for change. The facility can adapt to modifications needed for its therapy by allowing internal expansion of individual manufacturing suites constructed of prefabricated clean room walls and walkable ceiling panels. The new facility will aid a costly CAR-T therapy manufacturing process that genetically codes a patient’s T cells. Blood must be taken from a patient, cryopreserved, shipped to a manufacturing facility, reprogrammed, and manufactured in the clean room suites, and then shipped back for infusion into the patient, all in the shortest time possible. To enable the process, employees and technical support personnel move from the Administration building to the labs throughout the day while materials flow from the cGMP Warehouse into the manufacturing suites. These two resources meet in the central spine which has the capability to expand within the existing shell of the building in the future to increase production throughput.

Connecting The Workplace With The Process
Town Hall can be seen beyond the development lab though a floor to ceiling glazed enclosure, allowing natural light through the facility and promoting the connection between the vital work within the lab and the supporting administration.

Linking The Campus
The south facing glazed connector is elevated by the drop
in grade along the site, providing views to the pastoral surroundings and an overhang that protects the glass from the full exposure of the sun. Employees enter with a direct connection to the central spine, the heart of the manufacturing facility where glazed cleanroom walls open the lab to the skylit corridor and the cGMP Warehouse beyond.

Design for Discovery:
A Highly Specialized Facility
The commercial cGMP cell therapy manufacturing building is comprised of QC labs, a GMP warehouse and production clean rooms containing state of the art process utilities and equipment. Bright interior finishes and transparency display the cleanliness of the facility to all who walk through the adjacent corridors. Construction was streamlined, and on-site waste reduced using prefabricated wall and ceiling panels composed of a mix of glazed and powered panels that are quick to assemble and provide flexibility for everchanging production processes. The manufacturing facility cleanrooms are served from a network of utilities above which is supported by a structural system, separate from the structure of the building. These spaces are accessed via a walkable ceiling where electrical and HVAC needs are connected into the manufacturing suites below with ultimate flexibility for changes in products and workflow.


Design for Economy
Future Proofing for Economy and Success
Independent production suites (cleanrooms) were designed to be flexible and to allow for the expansion of multiproduct production with very minimal modifications. The production suites were designed and constructed using prefabricated clean room walls and walkable ceiling panels. This approach while not new to the industry was used very successfully to minimize on site waste and time required to erect and install. To make the most of economy of scale construction the manufacturing and warehousing building were designed and constructed to allow for future expansion within the shell of the building thereby eliminating the need for a future shell construction and only requiring minimal future fit outs. The main mechanical and utilities were also designed to be flexible and expandable with minimal additional infrastructure required. The project team understood from the onset that this project and Kites therapy is changing the terrain when it comes to novel cancer treatments and the incredible success in the therapy almost guarantees that this therapy will inevitable do away with other destructive forms of cancer treatments. The potential success of the therapy and the many know variables in future manufacturing requirements required that the project be designed and built with future proofing and expandability in mind. Independent HVAC systems and a suite separation strategy allow individual spaces to operate or shut down for cleaning or alterations. The facility was designed to include 78,000 SF of shell space for future expansion that would double the manufacturing production capacity while maintaining an operating facility.

Design Architect:
EwingCole

Associate Architect or Firm:

Landscape Architect:

Owner / Developer:
Kite Pharma

Engineer:

General Contractor:

Consultant:

Photographer:
Barry Halkin, Halkin/Mason Photography, LLC