Steven Wassersug
Title: Managing Director, Jones Lang LaSalle’s local construction division; Boston
Age: 45
Experience: 25 years
Hey kids, today we’re going to build a vivarium!
In you missed that biology class, a vivarium is a place, usually enclosed, for raising and keeping animals or plants for observation or research. For our purposes, it’s a highly-sensitive built environment in some of the region’s life sciences research and development labs where companies are searching for the miracle cures to some of the worst diseases that ail us. And Steven Wassersug is one of the local general contractors that work on those and other specialized research spaces.
Q: How did JLL get started in life sciences construction? It doesn’t seem like something you can easily pick up.
A: I’ve been with JLL for more than 14 years, when we were Spaulding & Slye. I started as a superintendent, then a construction manager and slowly worked into leading the group. Our core business has always been corporate interiors, building out office spaces large and small. It was probably the early 2000s. We were managing some buildings in Cambridge with pharmaceutical companies as tenants. Our property managers asked if we wanted to talk to [the companies] about doing some work for them. It was actually Novartis, and we ended up building an office for them and then that led to other work.
That was back when life sciences were still in their infancy in Cambridge. Over time we built up our resume and a few years later we formed a partnership with Boston University and Boston Medical Center and built a 175,000-square-foot lab and research building on their medical campus in 2004. It was heavy on R&D and labs, the real core, life-science kind of building. That’s what really put us on the map for life sciences. Now, we do a lot of work for the pharmaceutical firms, the medical device companies.
Q: What are some things you need to do to ensure a successful vivarium?
A: They are typically very expensive because they need their own dedicated systems. The finishes are very specialized. The equipment is very expensive. You need special glass and cage washers. They’re very sterile environments where they can’t have any contamination, so everything needs to be perfectly sealed and very cleanable. They can cost as much as $400-per-foot to build. They have highly specialized epoxy flooring that is easily cleaned and perfectly smooth. Even the ceilings are hard drywall ceilings and the majority of the time they also have epoxy paints on them that are easily washable. There are specialty water systems that feed into the animals. Typically they are mice or rats, but there are also goats and pigs and all sorts of different things that you probably don’t realize is going on in some of the buildings around the area. When the scientists go in, they’re all fully gowned. They go in through air showers to sterilize them. They need to be sure that nothing contaminates the experiments they’re doing.
Q: Is there anywhere else in the region that might be the next hotbed for life sciences, especially if rents jump even higher in East Cambridge?
A: We’re doing a lot of work with those kinds of companies in the Bedford, Billerica and Burlington areas. Those areas seem to be very receptive to life sciences companies. People sometimes get a little scared when you talk about life sciences and start thinking about chemicals and other research, but it’s actually very safe when it’s designed properly.
Steven Wassersug’s Five Favorite Vacation Activities:
- Spending time with family
- Going boating
- Visiting amusement parks
- Eating
- Catching up on sleep
