Higher Education

The four-story, 93,500- sf Harrell Medical Education Building at the University of Florida (UF) houses teaching and training facilities for the medical education and the physician assistant programs, bringing together a broad variety of program spaces to promote interaction between students and faculty. The design includes an academic tower acting as the iconic gateway feature of the Health Sciences Campus. The building culminates a 10-year commitment to create a new campus on the north side of the medical center.

Carnegie Mellon University is partnering with Tata Consultancy Services to create TCS Hall in Pittsburgh. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the 48,000-sf joint facility will provide research labs, academic and administrative offices, instructional space, an innovation courtyard, and a robotics area. TCS Hall will support collaborative research in artificial intelligence, automation, data analytics, cybersecurity, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.

McNeese State University is building the $41 million Health and Human Performance Complex in Lake Charles, La. Designed by Randy M. Goodloe and Crawford Architects, the 145,000-sf facility will provide six classrooms, 12 faculty offices, a teaching lab, and a sports training center. Ground was broken on the project in early 2017 with completion expected in June of 2018. The general contractor is Alfred Palma. 

Nebraska Wesleyan University broke ground in April of 2017 on the $27 million Duane W. Acklie Hall of Science in Lincoln. Housing the departments of biology, chemistry, and psychology, the three-story, 80,000-sf facility will provide collaborative classrooms, laboratories, study spaces, and a greenhouse. The project team includes The Clark Enersen Partners as architect of record with Celli-Flynn Brennan as design architect.

Utah State University broke ground in April of 2017 on the $45 million Life Sciences Building in Logan. Designed by VCBO Architects with Research Facilities Design (RFD) as laboratory design consultant, the 103,000-sf facility will provide 13 teaching labs, research labs, a lecture hall, and study spaces. The project will also house the Department of Biology. Completion is expected in January of 2019.

The University of Glasgow officially opened the £32 million Imaging Centre of Excellence in late March of 2017. Located at the South Glasgow Hospitals campus in Scotland, the facility features a 7-Tesla clinical MRI scanner to support advanced neurological and cardiovascular research. The building also houses neurosurgery operating suites and a biomedical business incubator called the Clinical Innovation Zone. The project was designed by BMJ Architects and built by BAM Construction.

Northwestern College broke ground in April of 2017 on a $24.5 million health and natural sciences center in Orange City, Iowa. Designed by Cannon Moss Brygger and HGA, the 61,000-sf facility will provide classrooms, labs, and offices for the departments of biology, chemistry, and nursing.

The University of Texas Medical Branch broke ground on the $90 million Health Education Building in Galveston in April of 2017. The five-story, 166,000-sf facility will support collaborative interprofessional education programs with large learning studios, technology-rich labs, flipped classrooms, and simulation training suites. The construction manager-at-risk for the project is Vaughn Construction. Occupancy is expected in spring of 2019.

The Sterling Chemistry Laboratory (SCL), located on Yale University’s Science Hill, is an iconic 157,800-gsf, three-story chemistry lab building designed by Delano & Aldrich and completed in 1923. The building structure of steel, reinforced concrete, and masonry, with a brick and brownstone exterior skin, remains intact, while the interior has been renovated to modernize the laboratory facilities and add 31,600 sf of space. The u-shaped building perimeter consists of a two-story head house at the south and three-story structures along the east and west. The primary focus of the SCL project is to provide cutting-edge teaching labs and associated support spaces within the footprint of the existing historic building, provide a much-needed roof replacement across the entire center area in the north and south, and provide a new HVAC system to support the science programs.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center officially broke ground in April of 2017 on the $119 million Balbach Global Center for Advanced Interprofessional Learning in Omaha. Serving as the headquarters for the Interprofessional Experiential Center for Enduring Learning (iEXCEL), the four-story, 191,884-sf facility will feature simulation suites and virtual immersive reality environments for medical training. The ground floor of the building will be occupied by the National Center for Health Security and Biopreparedness.

Stockton University is building the $33.2 million Unified Science Center 2 in Galloway, N.J. The three-story, 58,210-sf facility will house teaching and research labs, a vivarium, a gross anatomy lab, a multipurpose room, a greenhouse, and faculty offices. The $15.2 million, 37,720-sf Health Sciences Center is also under construction and will provide simulation suites, an exercise science lab, and space for the sustainability program. Both projects are slated for occupancy in 2018.

The University of Texas at San Antonio is planning to begin construction in early 2018 on the $95 million Science and Engineering Building. Designed by TreanorHL and Alamo Architects to promote interaction and collaboration, the multidisciplinary facility will provide active learning classrooms, teaching labs, and faculty offices to support STEM programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The University of Cincinnati Health is building the $60.5 million Gardner Neuroscience Institute in the Corryville area of Cincinnati. The 114,000-sf outpatient facility was designed by Perkins+Will to provide patient-centered neurological and psychiatric care. The four-story project will include an auditorium, a patient lounge, a café, an outdoor rehabilitation area, and an underground parking garage. Ground was broken on the facility in February of 2017 and occupancy is expected in 2019. The construction cost of the building is $26.6 million. 

The University of Sussex is planning to build the £60 million Life Sciences Building in Brighton in the United Kingdom. Designed by Hawkins Brown Architects, the 183,000-sf project includes the renovation of an existing genome research building and construction of a five-story addition housing technology-rich classrooms and collaborative laboratories for research and teaching. The sustainably designed facility will feature natural materials, green roofs, and internal courtyard atriums.

The Medical College of Georgia is engaged in a $62.5 million expansion of its cancer research facilities in Augusta. Designed to promote interaction between clinicians and researchers, the project includes the creation of a three-story facility housing offices and collaboration space connecting the M.