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HHMI's new research campus doesn't yet have an official name, says Institute President Thomas R. Cech. For internal planning purposes, it is being referred to simply as HCAT, the Hughes Collaboration in Advanced Technologies. In the end, however, the site may very well keep the name it already has—Janelia Farm—following in the tradition of Cold Spring Harbor and Woods Hole. "That has the advantage that it doesn't mean anything scientifically," Cech says. "As new generations of programs evolve there, the name of the place doesn't go out of date."
Besides, it still looks like a farm. Located along the south bank of the Potomac River about 30 miles upstream from Washington, D.C., the 281-acre site is mostly given over to woods, pasture and two ponds. Its centerpiece is a Normandy-style farmhouse that was built in 1936; both it and the adjoining carriage house are listed on the National Historic Register. Janelia Farm is not entirely rustic, however; it contains three nearly completed office buildings—the remnants of a technology park planned by the farm's previous owner, the Vanderburg Group, a subsidiary of the Dutch software firm Baan Companies.
In terms of location, at least, the site appeared to have virtually everything HHMI was looking for. Janelia Farm lies on a major highway—Virginia Route 7—just eight miles north of Dulles International Airport, which will mean easy access for out-of-town visitors. It is likewise very close to the Internet companies that have lately been springing up around Dulles, which will mean easy access to fiber-optic lines and other cutting-edge information technologies—not to mention top-flight computer talent. Being located in fast-growing Loudoun County, Virginia, provides access to housing and good schools. Most important, Cech says, the farm offers a pleasant setting in which to work. So, when it turned out to be available, HHMI snapped it up.
The details of the site plan remain to be determined, though it is already clear that the existing office buildings are not suitable for biomedical laboratories; one of them will likely be used for campus administration and bioinformatics, while the other two will be rented out. The farmhouse will probably be renovated, perhaps as a reception center. The main campus, which will include laboratory space for 24 investigators and some 300 staff members, along with conference facilities, visitor housing, recreation facilities and the like, will be constructed from scratch on the 183 acres of the site that remain open for development.
The designs will be as environmentally sensitive as possible, says HHMI's vice president for science development, David A. Clayton, who is in charge of the planning. For example, HHMI will remove only as many trees as it has to for the actual construction of the buildings. The landscaping will do everything possible to enhance the feeling of peace and quiet—and the portion of the site lying in the Potomac River floodplain, which is protected by state law, will not be disturbed. "For something so close to the city," Clayton says, "Janelia Farm is an amazingly bucolic site." —MMW
Photos: William K. Geiger, Paul Fetters
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Reprinted from the HHMI Bulletin,
July 2001, pages 10-15.
©2001 Howard Hughes Medical Institute
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HHMI Unveils Long-Range,
$500 Million Plan for
Collaborative Research
Campus
—February 1, 2001
HHMI Purchases Land in
Loudoun County,
Virginia
—December 15, 2000
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