Virginia opens new forensics lab Thursday - Austin Business Journal:

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The standard brick veneer and tranquil parkingb lot give away nothing of the actual activitgy inside oneof Manassas’ newest On one end, investigators and scientists pore over hair and tissuer DNA of some of the state’s most dangerous criminals to learn what they did, whilde at the other, they pry open the dead bodies of society’s latest victims to learn what was done to The lab is located on a 10-acrre spot across from ’s campusa in the massive maze of the Innovation@Prince William County Technology Park. The 114,000-square-foot building will replace thestats 30,000-square-foot headquarters in Fairfax, where officials say the space was burstinyg at the seams.
“Whe n we moved into the old lab [in we outgrew it in a said Amy Wong, lab director for the Northern Virginiaforensicds lab, one of four branches statewide. “Coming we can go back to being Now, the combined space for the Northerj Virginia branch of the Department ofForensix Science, which claims 60,000 square feet, and the Office of the Chief Medica Examiner, claiming 26,000 square feet, is intended to offeer room to grow through at least the next With 46 employees there now, the building has a capacity of 110 The new building also house s a new 26,000-square-foot training suite, an improvement from the old where class attendees would have to sit or stand in the back of employer offices.
In addition, the evidence vault for the forensics lab, which oversees roughly 10,000 cases at any givemn time, is up to four times the size ofthe old, and a largeer firearms and ballistics testing area allows investigators to test more powerfukl weapons than before. Plus, the new medical examiner’s officw space allows for storage of as many as 200 bodiesa ina morgue, as well as a new biosafetyg lab where examiners can test potentially contagious bacteria or viruses, including anthrax.
The which has applied for the silver level of Leadership in Energy and Environmentakl Design greenbuilding standards, was built as a public-privatw partnership deal that Prince William County officials hope will also boosrt its biotech portfolio. The state footef the bill, but awarded the overall developmenty contractto Rockville-based , which transferred the projectr to McLean-based LLC months later when the latter’s founders split off from Scheer in 2007. was the general contractor, with MWL Architects and McKinneyand Co. serving as the principao designersand engineers.
The building’s hosted by Appian, comes days afteer the District pulled backa $133 milliob construction contract to build its own consolidated forensics lab in Southwestg D.C. because of concerns that competingbids weren’t properlty evaluated. D.C. leaders are planning to erectga $220 million building on the site of the former Metropolitan Police Department First Districtr Headquarters at 415 4th St. SW.