Arkansas Children’s is constructing the $75 million National Center for Opioid Research and Clinical Effectiveness (NCOR) on the site of the Little Rock hospital campus. Designed by ESa (Earl Swensson Associates), the 65,000-sf facility will enable pioneering longitudinal studies on the effects of opioid exposure on family and pediatric health to guide treatment approaches and inform policy decisions.
Northeastern Illinois University broke ground in August of 2025 on a new building for the Daniel L. Goodwin College of Education in Chicago. Designed by SmithGroup, the $125.4 million facility will provide 24 classrooms, two designated conference rooms, and 80 private offices. The 189,673-sf structure will accommodate leading-edge laboratories and clinics for the cultivation of educational excellence, with 48,735 sf of space dedicated for general university use.
San Diego State University opened the Sciences and Engineering Laboratories in August of 2025 on the Imperial Valley campus in Brawley, Calif. Spanning 37,000 sf, the flexible structure houses teaching labs, interdisciplinary lecture spaces, specialized environments for research, core facilities, and 45 faculty and administrative offices. A STEM innovation hub is augmented by collaborative venues for public and private partners to work side by side with faculty and students.
The University of Utah is building a $155 million dormitory complex in Salt Lake City as part of a public-private partnership with American Campus Communities. Designed by Ayers Saint Gross and MHTN Architects, the six-story residence hall will add 1,446 beds for first and second year students.
In the span of 16 months, Seattle’s Fred Hutch Cancer Center formulated and implemented a space realignment initiative that divested 30,000 sf of leased space, generated $2 million in savings and another $2 million in cost avoidance, and impacted approximately 1,400 people, 20% of its 7,000-member workforce.
The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine opened a 154,000-sf hub in July of 2025 to enable an innovative, holistic curriculum and train future generations of providers in Arkansas and beyond. Designed by Polk Stanley Wilcox to reflect changing paradigms in medical education in function and form, the four-story structure features leading-edge educational environments including simulation centers, a maker space, and a 3,010-sf anatomy resource center.
The University of California, San Diego opened the $152 million Viterbi Family Vision Research Center in June of 2025 at the Shiley Eye Institute in La Jolla, Calif. The 100,000-sf facility was designed by NBBJ to foster interdisciplinary collaboration with wet and dry laboratories, clinical trial suites, educational facilities, and a vivarium. Supporting leading-edge research, the five-story structure will drive advances in the treatment of ophthalmologic diseases and prepare the next generation of clinician-scientists for the workforce.
The University of California, Berkeley is planning to begin construction in spring of 2026 on a seven-story facility for the Innovative Genomics Institute and Bakar Labs. Designed by DGA and Weiss/Manfredi, the development will expand research capabilities in genomics engineering with CRISPR technologies and provide critical infrastructure for life science companies scaling their operations.
Hybrid and remote work patterns that emerged under COVID guidelines seem to be here to stay, and universities are grappling with associated space utilization impacts alongside the cost pressures exerted by necessary program growth. In response, strategic space consolidation initiatives are paving the way for a more efficient and cost-effective approach to administrative space planning. Campus Planning at Tufts University was charged with aligning space usage with the evolving needs of faculty, staff, and students, leveraging data gleaned from utilization and occupancy at all four Tufts campuses, and have implemented space consolidations across the Medford/Somerville main campus as well as the Boston Health Sciences campus. Their takeaway: Consolidating office spaces in a way that better matches usage ensures that resources are allocated where they’re most needed.
The University of Texas at El Paso opened the $80 million Advanced Manufacturing and Aerospace Center (AMAC) in April of 2025. Designed by Treanor and Ayers Saint Gross to catalyze discovery and innovation, the leading-edge facility provides sophisticated environments for research, teaching, and hands-on learning. Spanning 98,000 sf, the highly flexible structure houses the College of Engineering’s Aerospace Center and W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation.
Biogen is planning to centralize its operations with a 580,000-sf global headquarters in the Kendall Common development in Cambridge, Mass. Representing a 15-year lease agreement, the facility’s strategic location will strengthen existing partnerships with MIT in research, education, and commercialization, and build on Biogen’s legacy as an integral part of the Kendall Square ecosystem.
Arkansas State University broke ground on the $33.2 million College of Veterinary Medicine in March of 2025. Designed by Cooper Mixon Architects, Archimania, and Perkins&Will, the 56,000-sf facility will feature state-of-the-art laboratory spaces, including an anatomy lab, a clinical skills lab, and a surgical skills training area. A dedicated clinical practice area, available 24/7, will enable students to hone hands-on examination and procedural competencies.
The 2024 SEFA Lab of the Year was awarded to the new Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) Center in Basel, Switzerland, that opened in September 2024 as a state-of-the-art research center dedicated to the discovery and development of groundbreaking drugs. The pRED Center exemplifies the future of transformative research by fostering innovation and collaboration, and embodying Roche’s commitment to advancing global healthcare and delivering life-changing treatments.
Stanford University opened its new 167,000-gsf Computing and Data Science building in January of 2025 in Palo Alto, Calif. Designed by LMN Architects to drive interdisciplinary research and innovation, the facility houses the Stanford Data Science and Impact Labs initiatives, as well as undergraduate programs in computer science and symbolic systems.
Ohio University began construction in January of 2025 on the $75 million Heritage Translational Research Center (HTRC) in Athens. Designed by Perkins&Will and DesignGroup, the 80,000-sf facility will consolidate laboratories and operations currently dispersed across campus, creating a collaborative ecosystem for clinical innovation. The four-story structure will provide bench space for translational biomedical research, as well as labs and support spaces for population health and clinical research.
