Latest Reports

The Bioprocess Innovation Center is the new office and research headquarters for FUJIFILM Diosynth Technologies in Research Triangle Park. The three-story facility combines research laboratories and administration into one building and fosters a strong sense of community, despite the isolated suburban setting. The project re-conceptualizes the role of a research laboratory building as a “home for a team of scientists.” The company’s research capabilities are showcased as visitors see the lab spaces as they approach the building.

While the term “strategic facility planning” is often used generically to refer to a variety of initiatives, it is actually a unique discipline with a distinct meaning, says Debora Hankinson, architect and director of Strategic Facility Planning at CRB Consulting. As an end product, a strategic facility plan (SFP) is the overarching document that sets the direction for all further planning activities, from master (or campus) planning to the tactical steps of capital projects planning, move management, and deferred maintenance planning.

Active learning, collaborative spaces, real-world connections, a purposeful focus on “soft skills,” and a grounding in liberal arts and sciences all combine in Jefferson’s Nexus Learning approach to develop and support work-ready graduates. “Nexus Learning is based on a suite of strategies that ensures our graduates are prepared to succeed in their professions or graduate school,” says Jeffrey Ashley, PhD, chemistry professor and director of the Center for Teaching Innovation and Nexus Learning at Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University). Nexus Learning appears to be on target in this mission, with 97 percent of undergraduates working in their disciplines or accepted to graduate school within four months of graduation.

The College of Engineering, one of 15 colleges and schools at Cornell University, has 21 percent of the undergraduate population, 32 percent of the graduate population, and 10 percent of the square footage of the campus. As part of the college master plan, Upson Hall, originally built in the 1950s, and one of the largest buildings on the engineering quad, was in line for modernization. The plan called for improving energy efficiency, providing student and faculty collaborative space, and creating wet, hybrid, nano-, bio-, and chemical engineering labs. Since the building is well-located and structurally sound, with good floor-to-floor heights for labs, the decision was to renovate the existing structure, rather than undertake new construction. The project, a complete gut and renovation of the 160,000-gsf building, scheduled in two approximately year-long phases, was completed in August 2017.

Purdue University’s new 178,000-sf Wilmeth Active Learning Center (WALC) contains seven different types of classrooms that are so integrated into the Library of Engineering and Science that “at times, you almost can’t tell the difference between them,” says Nanette Andersson, director of library facilities. The design was borne of years of study into the effectiveness of active learning and the kinds of spaces that best support it. The result is a facility that is utilized nearly 24 hours a day.