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While creating generic/flexible lab spaces that can be adapted to a variety of different research needs continues to be the preferred approach—especially in higher education buildings—there is also a growing need for highly specialized lab and support facilities designed for very specific types of research. As a result, facility designers are increasingly tasked with balancing the demand for both open generic/flexible labs and specialized lab spaces in a single building with the added challenge of improving energy efficiency, sustainability, and operating costs.

The Hans Rosling Center for Population Health at the University of Washington (UW) is designed to realize the vision of the university’s Population Health Initiative, a 25-year mission to address the most persistent and emerging global challenges affecting human health, environmental resilience, and social and economic equity. The nine-story Center provides space for collaborative group work, active learning, offices, and training for the UW Department of Global Health, the Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation (IHME), the UW School of Public Health, and the offices of the Population Health Initiative. The project was made possible by a $210 million gift from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $15 million in earmarked funding from Washington State.

2021 was another unprecedented year, with rapidly changing capital project priorities. New directions in science funding, the current and future realities of in-person and hybrid learning and work environments, and what it now takes to recruit and retain workers, students, and faculty were items of highest interest. Here is the top ten list of Tradeline articles that your peers found particularly helpful in navigating 2021 and preparing for 2022 and beyond.

The newly renovated Robert A. Welch Hall lays the groundwork to transform the way science is taught and done at the University of Texas, Austin, to move from siloed departments to transdisciplinary research that focuses on emerging fields that occur at the interfaces of traditional core science departments. While the sciences had been almost entirely housed in separate single-department buildings, the College of Natural Science’s master plan calls for more program-based facilities. The renovation infuses the building with light and increases its research capacity by 30 percent.

The new Community Commons at the University of Denver (DU), one of three major new buildings that opened at the school’s campus this fall, serves as the centerpiece of a student-oriented campus neighborhood that also includes a new residence hall and career center. The Commons is designed to provide students the knowledge, resources, and relationships they need to navigate their college experience, with gathering spaces, support services, and centralized dining options. It was designed in direct response to the goals established in the university’s strategic plan to center, elevate, and enrich the student experience.