Strategic Plans

The Texas A&M University System is planning to reopen its 11 campuses in fall of 2020 for in-person instruction and residence. Incorporating the latest guidelines from infectious disease experts and local, state, and federal officials, Texas A&M has created a strategic plan that prioritizes the safety and wellbeing of students and faculty and minimizes the risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure. Classes will begin in mid-August with the semester ending prior to Thanksgiving.

The University of Mount Union has created an innovative plan to safely resume instructional and residential operations in fall of 2020 in Alliance, Ohio. As well as making modifications to all areas of campus including classrooms, housing, dining areas, and group meeting spaces, the university will implement the Social Distancing Learning Model which includes both face-to-face and remote instruction. 

Catalent is rapidly scaling up its manufacturing capacity in Bloomington to enable production of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate that is currently being by developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. The collaboration involves joint investment from Catalent and Janssen to enable large-scale commercial manufacturing by January of 2021, with segregated cGMP production lines operating 24/7 to create approximately a billion doses.

Morgan Stanley will resume trading at its New York headquarters by late June of 2020. Leveraging insights from the experience of reopening its offices in Asia, the company is implementing pre-entry temperature checks and incorporating signage for walking routes that maintain appropriate social distancing. Welcome kits will be provided that include hand sanitizer and masks, which will be worn whenever employees are away from their desks. The corporate cafeteria will offer boxed meals that can be ordered via app, with meeting rooms remaining closed for the present.

The University of California, San Diego is planning to break ground in late 2020 on the Future College Living and Learning Neighborhood in La Jolla, Calif. Designed by HKS Architects and EYRC, the five-building, 900,000-sf complex will provide general-use classrooms, a 480-seat auditorium, a conference center, administrative offices, dining and retail amenities, and residential accommodation for approximately 2,000 undergraduate students.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) released the Re-occupancy Assessment Tool in May of 2020 to provide strategies for limiting exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in buildings. Offering a framework of strategies and general mitigation measures, the tool was developed by AIA’s Disaster Assistance Committee to provide public officials, businesses, and architects with practices that protect occupant health, safety, and welfare. 

Boston Real Estate COVID Consortium is creating a toolkit of strategies for workplace design, construction, and management in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The mission of the consortium is to share knowledge relating to current industry best practices, due diligence, and adapting to changes in codes and regulatory amendments for the post-pandemic working environment.

Merrick & Company are offering a free webinar on strategies for returning to work during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The one-hour session will begin at 1:00 PM EDT on May 7, 2020.

The University of Mississippi is planning to begin construction in late 2020 on the $160 million Jim and Thomas Duff Center for Science and Technology Innovation in Oxford. The 204,000-sf facility will provide leading-edge laboratories, interactive classrooms, collaboration areas, lounges, breakout spaces, conference and meeting rooms, and offices for faculty and staff. Anchoring the new Science District, the building is expected to be one of the nation’s leading student-centered learning environments for STEM programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VIMC) is being constructed on an accelerated schedule in Oxford in the United Kingdom. Ground was broken on the £66 million project in April of 2020 and occupancy is expected in 2021, a year earlier than previously planned.

FM:Systems is offering a webcast detailing five key steps that will enable facilities managers to prepare for the return to the workplace. Delivered by Brian Haines, Vice President of Strategy for FM:Systems, "Strategic Planning When Returning to the Workplace" will air from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM EST on May 7, 2020. 

Key takeaways will include:

Leading global infrastructure firm AECOM has set ambitious targets for reducing emissions to combat climate change. These targets were approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in April of 2020. At the time of approval, AECOM was the first and only US-based company in the engineering and construction sector to have set approved targets.

The Human Technopole Foundation is planning to construct a 592,000-sf biomedical research campus in the MIND Milano Innovation District in Italy. Designed by Piuarch, the Human Technopole Campus will include a ten-story, 377,000-sf facility offering 177,000 sf of dedicated laboratory space. Comprising two flexible volumes connected by a full-height atrium, the $102 million building will include advanced instrumentation suites, 800 investigator workstations, meeting rooms, event venues, and space for several research centers.

Real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield launched the Recovery Readiness Task Force (RRTF) in April of 2020 to lead the development of best practices, products, and partnerships to prepare clients for post-pandemic recovery and the eventual return to the workplace. Drawing on innovative strategies for design, construction, facilities management, and commercial cleaning protocols, the task force will offer a toolkit with step-by-step protocols for tenants and landlords to use as they begin planning the transition back to the workplace.

The U.S. Department of Energy is planning to begin construction in 2021 on the $75 million Grid Storage Launchpad at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. Designed as a resource hub for the development of next-generation grid energy storage technologies, the R&D facility will provide labs for basic materials synthesis and processing, in-operando characterization, small-scale cell fabrication, kilowatt-scale testing and validation, advanced prototyping, visualization, and analysis.