November 2026 High-Profile Focus: Life Sciences 15
Brown’ s Danoff Life Sciences Laboratories On Track for 2027 Opening
Providence, RI – Construction of Brown University’ s William A. and Ami Kuan Danoff Life Sciences Laboratories remains on schedule, with move-in planned to begin in February 2027. Since July, the construction team has focused on bringing the building’ s mechanical, electrical and plumbing( MEP) systems online.
The seven-story, approximately 300,000sf building in Providence’ s Jewelry District will be the largest academic laboratory building in Rhode Island. Five floors are dedicated to research, and the building is designed to accommodate about 75 principal investigators and roughly 700 researchers. It is all-electric and is expected to be one of the first net-zero laboratory buildings in New England.
Permanent power to the building was completed in June. The cooling plant came online in July and the heating plant in October, and the team is now starting up and commissioning the major equipment in the penthouse. At the same time, crews are fitting out research space, wet and dry labs, and a double-height lobby on the first level.
According to Brown’ s Planning, Design and Construction team, the substations and the very high volume of conduit and wire make the project
The William A. and Ami Kuan Danoff Life Sciences Laboratories / Photos by Nick Dentamaro
Elevated, fully enclosed skybridge connects Danoff Laboratories to Brown’ s Laboratories for Molecular Medicine
electrically and mechanically challenging. The central heating and cooling plant is powered almost entirely by electricity, which Brown says is a first in Rhode Island. The building also has what Brown
describes as the first exhaust source heat pump installed in a building in North America.
The building topped off in August 2025, and the floors, façade and major
building elements are in place. The project stayed on schedule through high winds and a historic blizzard. A tower crane lowered large elements such as stairwells into place, and a fully enclosed skybridge over Richmond Street, connecting the building to Brown’ s Laboratories for Molecular Medicine, was built off-site and installed in a matter of days. About 380 union workers are on site daily, including apprentices from Building Futures.
“ From an overall schedule perspective, we continue to be on track on two very significant milestones,” said Anthony Casello, Brown’ s senior director of design and construction.“ Brown will start movein on the completed floors in February 2027 and open the building for overall use in May.”
The building is designed by TenBerke with Ballinger, and Suffolk is the lead contractor. BR + A( Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers) provides mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection( MEP / FP) engineering. Stimson is the landscape architect; landscaping began this summer, and the design uses seawalls, aggregates and concrete that recall the adjacent shoreline and the Jewelry District’ s maritime and infrastructural character. VHB provides survey, civil engineering, landscape architecture and environmental services.
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