That's because Bldg. Shovels will be broken out late this summer on a project that has been on a blindingly fast track since President Clinton pledged, during a graduation address at Baltimore's Morgan State University in May 1997, to launch a federal effort to make an AIDS vaccine within 10 years.
People say they've never seen anything in the government move so fast.
Eleven-year NIH veteran Nancy Boyd is the VRC project officer. Three different working groups are also involved, enlisting the expertise of the campus' foremost movers and shakers in both the construction and scientific arenas. The rest of the facility, funded from appropriated dollars, includes a vivarium on the first floor. This drawing shows how the VRC will appear, looking north. At left is Bldg.