Wiregrass
Innovation
Center
The Wiregrass Innovation Center is a new biotech research, development and educational facility designed to advance agricultural and human health outcomes through genomic and genetic research.
As an extension of the Hudson Alpha campus in Huntsville, the Center brings a distinct identity tailored to downtown Dothan and the Wiregrass region while maintaining visual and programmatic ties to its parent campus.
The Center serves as a hub for community engagement, offering visible, state-of-the-art laboratories that support student outreach, hands-on learning and research opportunities for nationally recognized researchers interested in the region. The program includes three floors of biotech lab infrastructure, a ground-floor lobby, back-of-house support spaces, offices for economic development and the Wiregrass Research team and a 400-square-foot rooftop greenhouse.
Positioned within a rapidly evolving civic district, the facility and its staff will play a key role in shaping and supporting the area's ongoing growth and innovation. The building was designed with sustainability in mind, using locally sourced southern yellow pine for the mass-timber structure and an exterior panel system to modulate the southern Alabama sun in the summer.
The interior was designed to keep science on display, with open visual connections between circulation, lab spaces and outdoor areas.