Virginia Tech broke ground in fall of 2021 on the first academic building on its Innovation Campus in Alexandria. Designed by SmithGroup, the 300,000-gsf facility will offer experiential learning environments, maker spaces, flexible multipurpose areas, faculty offices, and research and testing labs for the school's graduate programs in computer science and engineering.
The University of Kansas (KU) faced a daunting challenge: more than 11 million sf of facilities in 150 buildings whose average age was 45 years and a deferred maintenance backlog exceeding $350 million. At the same time, the university’s strategic plan set a goal of increasing research and discovery, and the resulting campus master plan prioritized the need for new research facilities. Realizing that goal while addressing the existing challenges could have taken decades using traditional funding models. The solution? The Integrated Science Building, KU’s $180 million large-scale public-private partnership (P3) for interdisciplinary campus development, which is breaking new ground in funding models, integration, management structure, and fundraising activities. With this initiative, the university took a “great leap forward” in academic and research programs, design decisions, space allocations, programming, and critical infrastructure upgrades, as well as making a bold step with the project delivery.
Ivanhoé Cambridge and Lendlease will break ground in summer of 2022 on a 320,000-sf life sciences facility in Boston. Designed by SGA, the nine-story building will provide state-of-the-art labs, offices, and collaboration spaces for biomedical and pharmaceutical tenants. Offering BSL-1 and BSL-2 research environments, the amenity-rich structure will include a multipurpose ground floor, a parking garage, and numerous outdoor areas.
The Fitzsimons Innovation Community broke ground in August of 2021 on Bioscience 5 in Aurora, Colo. Strategically located next to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, the 90,000-sf building will enable biomedical and pharmaceutical tenants to manufacture next-generation cell and gene therapy products on a commercial scale. Saunders Construction is the general contractor for the highly flexible facility, which is slated for occupancy in spring of 2022.
Pennsylvania State University broke ground in July of 2021 on the West 1 engineering building in University Park. Located on the West Campus, the 290,000-gsf facility will provide general-purpose classrooms, faculty and administrative offices, and research and teaching labs for programs in aerospace engineering, architectural engineering, acoustics, and civil and environmental engineering. Strategically grouping research programs by theme will dramatically increase the utilization of shared spaces.
There is no question that the pandemic has taken a toll on higher education institutions, but they are planning for a future that includes fully engaged students and campuses bustling with activity. A Tradeline survey of 115 colleges and universities and the architectural and engineering firms that serve them shows they are focused on renovation, modernization, and major new construction of everything from life sciences facilities to theaters; 58 percent reported that they have one or two major projects in the planning or pre-planning stages.
BMW Group opened the FIZ Projekthaus Nord complex in Munich in September of 2020. Representing an expansion of the company's existing R&D campus, the collaborative facility provides 1.6 billion square feet of space for engineering, research, collaboration, and administration. Comprising two office structures and a test-bench building, the integrated complex offers a dynamically connected work environment enabled by 20,000 servers and a data storage capacity of 90 petabytes.
Oklahoma State University is constructing the $50 million North Academic Building in Tulsa. Designed by Dewberry, the collaborative health sciences facility will provide classrooms, labs, conference rooms, study areas, and administrative offices. The structure will also house dedicated anatomy and neuro-anatomy labs, the Center for Rural Health, the Center for Health Systems Innovation, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which will include a sophisticated autopsy lab designed for optimal safety, workflow efficiency, and evidence preservation.
Howard University is partnering with Adventist HealthCare to create a $450 million academic teaching hospital in Washington, D.C. Featuring a Level I trauma center, the 600,000-sf, 225-bed complex will offer state-of-the-art facilities for patient care and medical education. An adjacent building housing clinical offices will also be constructed. Completion is expected in 2025 or 2026.
Pivotal is partnering with Optum and Array Analytics to offer a live webinar at 12:00 PM (EDT) on July 29, 2020. "It's Time to Be Agile: Planning for the Future of Healthcare" will explore the integration of healthcare strategic planning with asset management and facilities planning. The session will detail ways that data can be leveraged through technology to enable health systems to quickly adapt to market transformations.
Topics will include:
Blinn College is planning to construct a $32 million academic facility on the RELLIS Campus in Brenham, Texas. Designed by Gensler, the Phase II Building will provide classrooms, faculty and administrative offices, and labs for programs in engineering and computer science. The three-story, 75,000-sf structure will also offer gathering and interaction areas, a student services center, a food vending court, and a large meeting room. Construction is slated to begin in February of 2021 with occupancy in fall of 2022.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will begin construction in early 2021 on the 160,000-sf High Containment Continuity Laboratory in Atlanta. Designed by a joint venture of Flad Architects and Page, the BSL-4 facility will support the CDC's mission to rapidly detect and mitigate public health hazards. Accommodating approximately 80 investigators, the state-of-the-art laboratory will be one of three centers in the world designed and certified to facilitate diagnostic research on specific, select viruses.
Global technology company Tencent is planning to build the 320-acre Net City in Shenzhen, China. The sustainable, self-contained development is being designed by NBBJ as a fully integrated 'city of the future' sited on 21 million sf of land. Terraced structures up to 30 stories tall will be nestled in abundant green spaces connected by pedestrian and cycle routes. Rooftop photovoltaic arrays will be mounted on most facilities.
Rutgers University’s new 110,000-sf, $84 million Richard Weeks Hall of Engineering, designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative (SLAM) and opened in 2018, provides state-of-the-art teaching suites and labs for concept development, pilot manufacturing, high-bay testing, rapid prototyping, and microfabrication in an interdisciplinary environment that serves students, faculty, and industry. In addition to smart classroom configurations, flexible learning laboratories, and collaborative work space, the building itself serves as a lab and allows for data gathering and hands-on learning. Rutgers’ 2014 strategic plan identified its School of Engineering as central to the university’s growth and success, and this LEED Gold-certified facility represents the first step in a physical master plan that supports both the school and university strategic plans.
Colorado State University broke ground in May of 2020 on the $60 million Vida building in Denver. The 114,000-sf facility represents the first phase of construction at CSU's $200 million Spur campus at the National Western Center. The 250-acre site is being redeveloped to create a vibrant hub for the exploration of global issues including human and animal health, water quality, and sustainable food systems.
