Construction crews placed the final structural steel beam on Albany's new Wadsworth Center Public Health Laboratory, marking a major milestone for the $1.7 billion project taking shape at the W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus. The five-story building, planned at roughly 663,000 square feet, is designed to consolidate Wadsworth Center operations now scattered across five sites in the greater Capital Region into a single, modern facility.
The milestone was confirmed by wnyt.com, which reported that the steel placement marked the structural topping-off point for what it called “this transformational $1.7 billion project.” The station notes the finished facility is expected to house nearly 800 staff members once operational. Governor Kathy Hochul announced the placement of the final structural beam on the laboratory building, according to the Fingerlakes1.com report on the milestone.
The project is being delivered by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York on behalf of the state Department of Health, per the station's report. The design-build team pairs Gilbane Building Company and Turner Construction Company with architecture firm HOK, according to a Businesswire release, which also notes that Jacobs is serving as the Dormitory Authority's technical advisor on the build. That same release states construction is expected to be completed in 2030.
A Long-Overdue Replacement for Aging Labs
The new building is intended to replace Wadsworth Center's aging facilities, according to a statement from wadsworth.org. The agency's own project page describes the goal as centralizing operations that are currently spread across five separate sites in the Capital Region, a sprawl that has long complicated coordination among the center's scientists and technicians. Consolidating under one roof is meant to streamline everything from sample intake to results reporting across the Wadsworth Center's many functions.
Those functions are extensive. The Wadsworth Center conducts infectious disease testing, newborn screening, drinking-water analysis, wastewater surveillance, and biomedical and environmental research, per the same wnyt.com account. Wadsworth's reach extends beyond New York's borders, too: the state Department of Health announced in the spring that Wadsworth was awarded a U.S. Reference Shared Services Testing Contract covering testing for measles, syphilis, other sexually transmitted infections, Chagas disease and fungal infections, according to health.ny.gov.
What the New Lab Is Meant to Deliver
Beyond consolidation, wadsworth.org describes the project's broader ambitions: the new laboratory is intended to strengthen New York State's ability to respond to public health threats, foster innovation in public health science, support the next generation of scientists, and enhance collaborations. Those goals sit atop the day-to-day lab work the center already performs for the state, from tracking disease outbreaks to screening newborns for serious conditions.
The topping-off milestone is a visible marker in a project that has drawn state-level attention throughout its construction. Governor Hochul's office has previously touted both the start of construction and the project's overall scale, framing it as a centerpiece investment in the state's public health infrastructure. The steel beam placement represents the structural skeleton of the building being complete, even as years of interior build-out remain ahead before the facility can open its doors to the staff it is meant to serve.
