JMA-Designed Warehouse Produces 170 Million Tubes for COVID-19 Testing
Last Summer, Principal Darren Orender and Designer Kaitlyn Schopen provided architectural services for Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Project Patriot- a $43 million facility to produce COVID-19 tests. The 120,000 SF facility in Lenexa, Kansas, built within an existing warehouse, increased production of viral transport media (VTM) tubes from 50,000 to 8 million per week.
By December 31, Thermo Fisher had met their production quota of 170 million tubes.
“I am so proud of our team for creating such an important facility in a very short amount of time,” said Orender who led the design. “Our team proved once again that we can meet client needs under unique challenges and strict timelines.”
Fun Fact: 170 million testing tubes (3 quarters of an inch in diameter) is 2,012.25 miles.
Perspective: There are 1,856 miles between JMA's Kansas City and Seattle offices.
JMA provided design and construction documents in 4 weeks and construction was completed in 6 weeks. Orender and Schopen also worked on Phase II of this project which further expanded production operations.
Click here to read about a JMA designer who used his personal 3D printer to create mask-adjusting strips for medical professionals on the frontlines against COVID-19.