Industry News

The New School will open its $372 million University Center in New York in January of 2014. The facility will act as an interdisciplinary hub for all of the university's programs. The 16-story, 375,000-sf building includes seven floors of academic space with dormitories on the remaining nine. Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the facility will provide a 600-seat auditorium, flexible classrooms, lecture halls, learning studios, a library, student and faculty resource rooms, and an event café.

Cook Children’s Medical Center will begin construction in January of 2014 on a $349 million expansion of its Fort Worth campus. The project includes construction of a six-story, 314,000-sf tower and a two-story, 16,560-sf utility plant. A cardiology center, additional exam rooms, and lab space will be built. Cook's existing facility will also be renovated; the emergency department will be expanded and surgical suites will be enlarged and upgraded. Construction of the tower and utility plant will reach completion in late 2017, with internal renovations finishing in 2018.

Trident Technical College will open a 90,000-sf science and nursing building in January of 2014 in North Charleston, S.C. The $30 million facility will feature a 291-seat tiered lecture hall that can be divided into smaller instructional spaces, as well as teaching labs, classrooms, a clinical simulation suite, and a nursing resource center. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the building. The project team included design architect LS3P Associates and general contractor China Construction America.

The University of North Texas has partnered with Ramtech Building Systems on a modular construction project in Denton. The three-building installation provides 38,000 sf of instructional space, conference rooms, and faculty and administrative offices. Designed to showcase the speed and versatility of moveable modular construction, the $3.5 million project has enabled the relocation of key programs as part of the new $130 million University Union project.

Merck began building a new pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Reinbek, Germany, in December of 2013. The $55 million project will provide laboratories and cleanrooms for the production of asthma and allergy diagnosis and treatment solutions. The two-story, 65,000-sf facility will support Merck’s business objective to supply emerging markets including China. Completion is expected in 2016.