Engineering

The Aerospace Corporation will break ground in fall of 2020 on a $100 million research and development center in Colorado. Located adjacent to the company's existing campus in Colorado Springs, the three-story, 90,000-sf structure will provide classified facilities for the design and deployment of resilient space architecture. Featuring a multipurpose technology center, the project will support acquisition, testing, and evaluation activities, as well as the development of tactics, techniques, and procedures.

The University of Sheffield completed construction in July of 2020 on the Royce Discovery Centre in the United Kingdom. Designed by Bond Bryan Architects, the flexible facility provides leading-edge laboratories and workshops for materials science research. Featuring advanced technologies for 3D additive manufacturing, digital manufacturing, and nanocharacterization, the building leverages sophisticated strategies for vibration and noise mitigation to protect sensitive instrumentation.

Huawei Technologies is planning to construct a $1.3 billion R&D center in Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Acting as the international headquarters for the company's optoelectronics business, the 538,000-sf complex will provide research, development, and manufacturing facilities for the creation of optical devices and modules. Catalyzing the growing innovation cluster in the region, the project will be built on a 500-acre brownfield site that Huawei acquired in 2018.

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. 

Communities, corporations, and educational institutions are drafting plans to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, employing policies around personal protective equipment; keeping a 6-foot distance from co-workers, peers, and clients; and reconfiguring their physical spaces. Another potential mitigation strategy is to adjust a facility’s mechanical system to better protect the occupants, though that should not be considered the primary solution, cautions Michael Walsh, PE, LEED AP, senior mechanical engineer and principal at R.G. Vanderweil Engineers, LLP. “There’s no silver bullet,” he says.

The University of Salford will begin construction in summer of 2021 on the £13 million Centre of Excellence in Intelligent Automation and Robotics in the United Kingdom. Designed by 5plus architects, the 21,000-sf facility will provide a variety of instructional spaces as well as specialized labs for robotics, manufacturing, and health technologies. An automotive hub on the ground floor will accelerate the development of new transportation and mobility solutions.

The University of Bath is constructing the £60 million Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems (IAAPS) in the Bristol and Bath Science Park in the United Kingdom. Designed by Stride Treglown and DKA, the two-story, 143,000-sf facility will provide sophisticated R&D labs for the creation of ultra-low emission vehicles. The structure will also house testing suites, prototyping workshops, offices, a business incubator, and instructional spaces for engineering training programs.

The U.S. Army is building the Directed Energy Research Facility at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. The 5,800-sf project will provide the Space and Missile Defense Command with specialized high-bay labs for the creation of high energy laser (HEL) technologies. Accommodating two HEL systems simultaneously, the structure will support the prototyping and development of advanced weapons systems to respond to evolving threats. Construction began on the facility in March of 2020 and completion is expected in May of 2021.

The University of Texas at San Antonio is planning to construct a $90 million facility that will house the School of Data Science and the National Security Collaboration Center. The School of Data Science will occupy 84,500 sf of classroom, lab, and office space in the structure, which will collocate the departments of computer science, computer engineering, statistics and data sciences, and information systems and cybersecurity.

Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology is planning to construct the CAD$105 million A-Block Building Expansion in Toronto. Acting as a gateway to the school's Progress Campus in Scarborough, the 150,000-gsf project will be the first zero-carbon, mass-timber facility at an institution of higher education in Canada. Offering academic and social spaces for the School of Engineering Technology and Applied Science, the building will include flexible classrooms for active learning, laboratories, administrative offices, and an expansive atrium.

Washington State University Tri-Cities is constructing the $30 million Academic Confluence Building in Richland. Designed by ZGF Architects with Research Facilities Design (RFD) as laboratory design consultant, the 40,000-sf facility will feature state-of-the-art teaching labs for programs in physics, biology, chemistry, geology, engineering, and anatomy and physiology.

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.

The US Navy broke ground in May of 2020 on the $23 million Directed Energy Systems Integration Laboratory in Port Hueneme, Calif. Located at Naval Base Ventura County's Point Mugu sea range, the 18,500-sf facility will allow the Naval Surface Warfare Center to provide accelerated delivery of laser lethality to warfighters at sea.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is renovating and expanding its engineering complex to provide leading-edge environments for learning and discovery. The $75 million project will replace an existing 25,300-sf structure with an 87,000-sf research facility connecting the Scott Engineering Center to Nebraska Hall. The four-story, 177,000-gsf Scott Engineering Center will be renovated to provide new undergraduate teaching labs, research labs, classrooms, and departmental offices.

The University of Maine began construction in May of 2020 on the $78 million Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center in Orono. Designed by Ellenzweig and WBRC Architects/Engineers to promote experiential learning, the 108,000-sf facility will feature hands-on teaching labs for programs in mechanical and biomedical engineering. The three-story multidisciplinary building will also offer instructional spaces, capstone project rooms, a collaboration commons, conference rooms, informal meeting areas, and offices for faculty and staff.