The Events Management Branch (EMB) is working with the Office of Research Facilities to oversee multiple major projects in its conference facilities occurring on NIH’s main campus and three different off-campus locations stretching well into 2019.
The first major project involves the closing and transfer of one off-campus facility to another location. The conference facilities at 5635 Fishers Lane will be closing and relocating to the newly renovated 6700B Rockledge Drive conference facilities, opening mid-2018. The conference facilities at 6700B Rockledge Drive will include three new conference rooms and fit a total of 150 people or 50 people per room.
The second major project is taking place at Rockledge II, another off-campus facility, and is expected to open early 2019. This facility is undergoing renovations to expand the two-room conference facility into an eleven-room facility that will occupy both the first and second floors of the building and the largest conference room will be able to comfortably seat almost 300 people.
The third and last major renovation will take place on NIH’s main campus at the Building 31 Conference Center on the sixth floor. This project is expected to start April 2018 and will take approximately 12 months to complete, hopefully opening by the end of March 2019. This particular facility is over 50 years old and will undergo a total renovation to not only improve the conference facility space and capabilities, but to expand the bathrooms and improve the fire egress as well.
The existing ladies restroom will be expanded to fit 10 stalls instead of four and will incorporate handicap accessible stalls with sinks. A new AV room will be added to the floor along with 4K resolution capabilities and new IT infrastructure to simplify cabling (using one cable for video and audio instead of multiple cables). The remaining four conference rooms will have the capability to split or combine to accommodate both large and small meetings. The new fire egress will help bring the building up to code and a new HVAC system will be included, giving the conference room users the ability to control temperatures from within the rooms and separate from the entire building.
In preparation of the 31 Conference Center shutdown, the conference facilities at Building 45 (Natcher) and Building 60 made improvements to accommodate moved meetings, conferences and events. Building 60 had AV equipment installed in the lecture hall, chapel and two classrooms on the first floor. In addition to AV equipment, screens, projectors and broadcasting equipment were also installed to help update this conference space. In the Natcher conference space, the wall between Conference Rooms A and B was removed to increase the capacity to 125 people from 80.
The EMB hosts an average of 14,000 events, meetings and/or conferences annually and will do its best to make adjustments to continue to accommodate its customers. For more information or questions, please contact (301) 435-2208.
