Government

Columbia University’s acting president, Claire Shipman, has announced plans to visit Washington, D.C., to discuss possible models for changes to indirect cost recovery rates. In February of 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that allocations for costs that maintain the infrastructure and administrative support for federally funded research would be capped at 15 percent, whereas previous policies allowed higher education institutions to negotiate agreements individually. 

Savannah River National Laboratory opened the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC) in August of 2025 on the campus of the University of South Carolina Aiken.

The University of Virginia is constructing the $100 million Karsh Institute of Democracy in Charlottesville to foster the exploration and enhancement of democratic culture, laws, and institutions. Designed by Höweler+Yoon Architecture and Hanbury, this vibrant ecosystem of spaces will bring faculty, students, staff, and public figures together to accelerate the translation of research and scholarship into actionable solutions.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will begin construction in late 2025 on the first phase of Exploration Park in Houston. Developed by the American Center for Manufacturing and Innovation (ACMI) and Griffin Partners, the dynamic ecosystem will provide up to 22 facilities with leasable environments for commercial space innovation. Build-to-suit options will range from 50,000 sf to 250,000 sf, with multi-tenant structures offering footprints of 15,000 sf to 100,000 sf.

The Government of Canada is investing in federal science to strengthen the safety of air, rail, marine and pipeline transportation systems that Canadians rely on every day. Located in Ottawa, the Transportation Safety and Technology Science (TSTS) hub will transform how federal researchers and private investigators work together by bringing them under one roof. Architecture49 and B+H Architects designed the 226,000-sf facility, which will serve as a shared space for the National Research Council and the Transportation Safety Board.

Eptura announced in May of 2025 that it has achieved authorization through the U.S. Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) for its Archibus integrated workplace management system (IWMS). With Archibus now available on the FedRAMP Marketplace, Eptura is expanding government agencies’ access to industry-leading tools to optimize their infrastructure investments. This creates new opportunities for evaluating office occupancy, enhancing maintenance programs, tracking building performance, and right-sizing real estate portfolios. Key features include:

The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) is creating a new $115.5 million facility for the Milwaukee Crime Lab in partnership with the Medical College of Wisconsin to drive discovery, innovation, and education in the forensic sciences. Replacing the existing complex, the 73,188-gsf project will include 64,802 gsf of shared space that will also accommodate operations for the Division of Forensic Sciences. The center will also offer training spaces, offices, and a parking garage.

The U.S. Department of Energy is constructing the Stable Isotope Production and Research Center (SIPRC) on the main campus of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Designed by Gresham Smith, the $325 million facility will address a critical need for stable isotopes in medicine, science, industry, and security. SIPRC will be the nation’s first domestic production facility for enriched stable isotopes since 1998 and will reduce current dependence on diminishing reserves and foreign suppliers. 

Construction began in November of 2024 on the Atlantic Science Enterprise Centre (ASEC) in Moncton, New Brunswick. Designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects in association with EXP, the adaptive reuse project will transform the existing Gulf Fisheries Centre into a four-story complex equipped with leading-edge laboratories and technologies.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) broke ground on the Agricultural Research and Technology Center in October of 2024. Consolidating labs currently located at the University of California, Davis, the $76 million facility will enable the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) to continue its long-standing research collaboration with the institution.

The General Services Administration (GSA) completed construction on Building 53 at the Denver Federal Center in September of 2024. Designed by Gensler, the complex project involved the transformation of almost 200,000 sf in a 1940s-era structure into a modern and collaborative office environment. The sustainable facility collocates five federal agencies:

The U.S. Department of Energy broke ground in September of 2024 on the Energy Materials and Processing at Scale (EMAPS) facility in Golden, Colorado. Located on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's South Table Mountain Campus, the $224 million development will create a direct path from bench-scale materials and process innovations to pilot-scale integration and production.

Highly accurate badging data generated by workers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., is giving space planners and administrators powerful new insights for making more efficient space planning decisions in the post-pandemic era. As the nation’s largest Department of Defense University Affiliated Research Center, the 450-acre campus consists of nearly 4 million sf of space, including cutting-edge cybersecurity, spacecraft, and robotics facilities. Badging data from APL’s 8,000-plus workers provides detailed information for comparing projected space needs with the hybrid utilization behaviors established during the COVID-19 pandemic. These new data-driven insights are now being used to inform decision-making for high-cost capital construction projects and short-term space planning initiatives. 

The State of Missouri broke ground in June of 2024 on a $151 million project that will collocate five agencies in one integrated location. Designed by Multistudio, the 208,000-sf facility will provide laboratories and support spaces for the departments of agriculture, natural resources, conservation, and health and senior services, as well as the Missouri State Highway Patrol. This centralized hub will enhance operational efficiencies by creating an ecosystem of resources that will optimize the delivery of analytical services.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science has selected Hensel Phelps to deliver the Second Target Station (STS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Part of a significant upgrade of the Spallation Neutron Source, the new facility will provide transformational neutron capabilities that will advance scientific discovery and solve emerging societal challenges. The development represents an investment of up to $3 billion and will be built over the course of eight years.