Virginia opens new forensics lab Thursday - Wichita Business Journal:

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The standard brick veneer and tranquilo parking lot give away nothingy of the actual activit y inside oneof Manassas’ newest On one end, investigators and scientistxs pore over hair and tissue DNA of some of the state’se most dangerous criminals to learn what they did, while at the they pry open the dead bodied of society’s latest victims to learn what was done to them. The lab is locatecd on a 10-acre spot across from ’s campuds in the massive maze ofthe Innovation@Princed William County Technology Park.
The 114,000-square-foot building will replaced thestate 30,000-square-foot headquarters in Fairfax, wherew officials say the space was bursting at the “When we moved into the old lab [in we outgrew it in a year,” said Amy lab director for the Northern Virginia forensics lab, one of four branchesa statewide. “Coming here, we can go back to being Now, the combined space for the Northerjn Virginia branch of the Department ofForensic Science, which claims 60,00o square feet, and the Office of the Chief Medicalk Examiner, claiming 26,000 square is intended to offer room to grow through at leastr the next decade.
With 46 employees therr now, the building has a capacity of 110 The new building also houses anew 26,000-square-foo training suite, an improvement from the old where class attendees would have to sit or stand in the back of employees offices. In addition, the evidencde vault for the forensics lab, whicnh oversees roughly 10,000 cases at any given time, is up to four time the size ofthe old, and a larger firearms and ballisticxs testing area allows investigatorsd to test more powerfup weapons than before.
Plus, the new medical examiner’s office space allows for storage of as many as 200 bodiesz ina morgue, as well as a new biosafetyy lab where examiners can test potentially contagiouse bacteria or viruses, including anthrax. The project, which has applies for the silver level of Leadership in Energuy and Environmental Design greenbuilding standards, was built as a public-privatw partnership deal that Prince William County officials hope will also boost its biotecg portfolio.
The state footed the bill, but awarded the overall development contractto Rockville-based , which transferredr the project to McLean-based LLC months lateer when the latter’s founders splitf off from Scheer in 2007. was the general with MWL Architects and McKinneyand Co. serving as the principao designersand engineers. The building’sd opening, hosted by Appian, comes days after the Districr pulled backa $133 million construction contract to build its own consolidate forensics lab in Southwesgt D.C. because of concerns that competingbids weren’t properly evaluated. D.C.
leaders are planning to erecg a $220 million building on the site of the formee Metropolitan Police Department First District Headquarters at 4154th St. SW.