Teamwork is what the designers and builders of Genentech's Oceanside product operations project credit to winning the ISPE winner of the overall Facility of the Year award.

The technique for the pharmaceutical manufacturing project was a "design-build hybrid" approach, meaning that every member vested in creating the project worked together in the same offices, collaborated in meetings and communicated more than they would in a sub-contractor environment — where various service providers show up to the site separately.

"At the end of the day, what could have been 50 e-mails was done with four discussions and a drawing on a white board," said Architect Kennon Baldwin of Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects.

The team — which comprises contractors, architects and employees of the 521,000-square-foot biotech facility — felt a sense of collaboration in the five-year long project, originally contracted by IDEC Pharmaceuticals. IDEC merged with Biogen Inc., to form Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB) — and Genentech (NYSE: DNA) purchased the facility from them.

Despite the buy-outs, construction continued on schedule due to the teamwork approach, according to Andy Williams, Genentech's senior director of manufacturing operations and technology.

"By having the structure that we had, it was relatively seamless," he said. "We weren't switching back and forth with the company moniker, we were still able to move forward as a team."   Click here to view the entire story.