Academic Medical

Collin College opened the Cary A. Israel Health Sciences Center in January of 2016. Located on the Central Park campus in McKinney, Texas, the 125,000-sf facility provides classrooms, offices, and laboratories for programs in nursing, surgical technology, emergency services, respiratory care, and sleep disorders therapy. Designed by PBK Architects and built by Pogue Construction, the three-story project features a large simulation training center with advanced patient simulators and a 150-seat lecture hall.

Bellevue College opened its $21.8 million Health Sciences Building in December of 2015 in Bellevue, Wash. Designed by LMN Architects and built by Bayley Construction, the 70,500-sf facility provides classrooms and teaching labs for programs in imaging and nursing, as well as academic and administrative offices. The Health Sciences Building features a five-room simulation training lab and two clinical skills labs with a total of 20 hospital beds.

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare has selected Turner Construction as the general contractor for a $280 million expansion of the Methodist University Hospital campus in Memphis, Tenn. Designed by HKS and Self + Tucker Architects, the project includes the creation of a 440,000-sf addition which will be delivered using an overbuild technique to construct a nine-story patient tower on top of the existing emergency department.

Complex technology, expanding program, and increasingly specialized and segmented roles and responsibilities often create a disconnect in the process of designing and building sophisticated facilities. The result can be a research or diagnostic lab or high-containment animal building that becomes a burden to the owner, whether because it hasn’t been right-sized, is not energy efficient, or operates with sub-par reliability. The solution is to assign someone the task of aligning design decisions with the building’s ultimate scientific mission.

Carleton University began construction in December of 2015 on a $52 million (USD$36.8 million) health sciences building in Ottawa. The seven-story, 120,000-sf facility will provide classrooms and open laboratories to support neuroscience and health sciences programs. The project will also include collaborative research space for the study of healthy aging and infectious diseases. Completion is expected in August of 2017.

Baylor St. Luke’s is building a $1.1 billion medical campus in Houston. Created by Catholic Health Initiatives and Baylor College of Medicine, the project includes a $917 million, 650-bed hospital with two bed towers as well an ambulatory care complex and laboratories for basic and translational research. The 27.5-acre McNair Campus will enable Baylor St. Luke’s to consolidate clinical services currently located at the Texas Medical Center and will also be the future site of the Texas Heart Institute.

A backlog of construction, renovations, and upgrades may finally come to life, thanks to the $2 billion increase in NIH funding Congress approved in December, the first increase in more than 12 years. More than 80 percent of the $32 billion NIH budget is dedicated to extramural research—research outside the NIH itself—meaning that an additional $1.6 billion in research grants will be made available this year.

Stamford Hospital opened a $5.2 million outpatient building in January of 2016 in Stamford, Conn. Designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative and built by AP Construction, the 46,000-sf renovation project provides modern space for a broad array of clinical services including adult primary care and specialty consultation; urogynecology and pelvic surgery; obstetrics and gynecology; diabetes and endocrinology; and radiology.

The National Institutes of Health will receive a federal funding increase of $2 billion from a bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in December of 2015. Representing the largest funding increase in over a decade, the legislation will establish the NIH's annual budget at $32 billion.

The Medical College of Wisconsin will break ground in spring of 2016 on a $58 million administrative building in Wauwatosa. Designed by Flad Architects with C.G. Schmidt as construction manager, the 225,000-sf facility will stand approximately seven stories high and will house up to 1,200 faculty and staff members. Completion is expected in fall of 2017.

Tusculum College is building the $30 million Meen Center for Science and Mathematics in Greenville, Tenn. Designed by John Fisher + Associates, the four-story, 100,000-sf facility will provide teaching and research labs, classrooms, and lecture halls for programs in biology, chemistry, computer science, nursing, mathematics, and environmental science. Rentenbach Constructors began work on the project in May of 2015 and completion is expected in September of 2016.

A remarkable evolution in the tools and methods of research is driving a host of trends in laboratory planning and design, including fewer permanently assigned offices, a decided prioritization of computational over “wet” space, and an emphasis on core facilities and shared equipment, according to a survey of research organizations and A/E/C firms conducted by Tradeline.

The University of Kansas Medical Center began construction in fall of 2015 on the $75 million Health Education Building in Kansas City. Serving as the primary teaching facility for the schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Professions, the 171,000-sf building will provide advanced simulation training suites and flexible, technology-rich learning spaces to support emerging healthcare pedagogies and interprofessional education programs.

South Louisiana Community College will break ground in early 2016 on a $17.1 million health and science facility in Lafayette. The three-story, 63,000-sf building will accommodate programs in nursing and allied health as well as providing space for STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The project will also house administrative offices, a 250-seat auditorium, a virtual hospital, computer labs, conference rooms, and wet and dry science teaching labs. Occupancy is expected in fall of 2016.

Sanford Health began building the $30 million Edith Sanford Breast Center in fall of 2015 in Sioux Falls, S.D. Designed by Architecture Incorporated, the three-story, 48,000-sf facility will provide space for clinical trials, a core lab for genomics research, a biobank, a multidisciplinary conference center, and a comprehensive range of services including mammography and surgery. The project includes 27,000 sf of renovated space in the adjoining Sanford Cancer Center and 58,000 sf of new construction.