Higher Education

The “Super Lab,” opened in 2015 at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), in Sydney, Australia, can host more than 200 students in up to five different lab classes simultaneously. With several sessions held each day, the Super Lab sees 2,500 to 3,000 student entries per week, a figure that, for a single lab space, is “rather horrifying to academics at first face value,” says Bill Booth, laboratory operations manager at UTS.

The University of Mississippi is constructing the $63 million School of Medicine in Jacksonville. Located at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the five-story, 151,569-sf facility will feature flexible, technology-rich classrooms designed for ease of conversion between lecture-style instruction and team-based learning sessions. The project will also include tiered auditoriums, a variety of study areas, and a dedicated floor for simulation laboratories. Ground was broken on the project in early 2013 and completion is expected in spring of 2017.

The University of Utah broke ground in late March of 2016 on the $55 million Gary & Ann Crocker Science Center in Salt Lake City. Providing interdisciplinary science labs, lecture halls, classrooms, an atrium, and a business incubator, the four-story facility will house the Center for Cell and Genome Science and the Center for Science and Math Education. The 123,500-sf project includes renovation of the existing 71,000-sf George Thomas building and construction of a 52,500-sf addition.

South Dakota State University is building two new large animal research facilities. Construction began in October of 2014 on the $6 million Swine Education and Research Facility, which will include a classroom, boar and sow housing, research space, and a biosecure glass observation area. The $6 million Cow-Calf Education and Research Facility, slated for completion in spring of 2016, will provide offices, laboratory space, conference rooms, livestock evaluation pens, a monoslope research building, and replicated pastures.

Su Yat-sen University broke ground in March of 2016 on a 323,000-sf gravitational wave research facility in Zhuhai, China. The project will feature a 108,000-sf cave laboratory built to attain stringent vibration requirements and a 5,400-sf observation station. The lab is part of the $2.3 billion Tianqin research project that will be developed in four phases over the next two decades. Gravitational wave data will eventually be collected by three high-orbit satellites and relayed to the facility for analysis.

Holyoke Community College’s Center for Health Education is a state-of-the-art facility providing teaching spaces for nursing and radiologic technology students pursuing a practical nursing certificate, an associate degree in nursing, or an associate degree in science, with a focus on radiologic technology for use in the medical imaging professions. The Center also supports the Foundations of Health program by providing modern low-fidelity (lo-fi) labs within the nursing program spaces.

The University of Lincoln began construction in March of 2016 on the $23 million Isaac Newton Building in the United Kingdom. The project includes the renovation of the existing engineering hub and construction of an 81,000-sf addition. The completed facility will feature a Faraday cage, a semi-anechoic chamber, and a 500-seat lecture hall. Occupancy is expected in early 2017. The University of Lincoln is also in the process of designing the $18 million, 60,000-sf Sarah Swift Building to house the departments of Psychology and Health & Social Care.

The University of Missouri is renovating Lafferre Hall in Columbia. Housing the College of Engineering, the completed facility will feature upgraded laboratories, collaborative study areas, and shell space on the third floor to allow for future expansion. Supported by $38.5 million in state funding, the project will provide flexible teaching and research space for programs in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

With Florida International University’s Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences facility, student and faculty recruitment has exploded, and major donations are on the rise. Collocating five health science disciplines with nursing has been a boon to interprofessional collaboration, as has the inception of the Simulation Teaching and Research (STAR) center. But five years in the facility has taught Dr. Helen Cornely an important lesson: You can’t have too many electrical outlets or too much storage.

The University of Cincinnati has completed the fourth and fifth phases of a six-phase transformation of Rieveschl Hall. The renovation of the eight-story, 234,000-sf building has taken place over the course of four capital funding cycles. Phase 4 involved the 42,000-sf renovation of the Department of Biology’s sixth- and seventh-floor teaching and research labs, offices, and conference space.

Indiana State University will begin construction in summer of 2016 on a $64 million renovation and expansion of the existing Arena Building to create a new home for the College of Health and Human Services in Terre Haute. The project includes reconfiguration of interior space, significant upgrades to building systems and infrastructure, and construction of an 87,000-sf addition. Completion is expected in early 2019.

Webster University began construction in March of 2016 on the $44 million Interdisciplinary Science Building in St. Louis. Designed to accommodate STEAMM programs in science, technology, engineering, arts, math, and medicine, the collaborative facility will house the departments of Anthropology, Sociology, Biological Sciences, Nursing, Psychology, and International Languages and Cultures.

Augsburg College broke ground in April of 2016 on the $70 million Hagfors Center for Science, Business and Religion. The four-story, 135,000-sf facility will provide classrooms, labs, and offices for the departments of biology, business, chemistry, computer science, math, physics, psychology, and religion. The interdisciplinary project was designed by HGA Architects to provide maximum flexibility in an environment saturated with natural light.

Oregon Health & Sciences University began construction in January of 2016 on the $349 million Center for Health and Healing South in Portland, Ore. Designed by ZGF Architects and built by Hoffman Construction, the project includes a 14-story medical building and a 10-story mixed-use facility. The $160 Knight Cancer Institute will also be built on the South Waterfront Campus.

The University of Toronto’s new 110,000-sf, five-story Environmental Science and Chemistry Building (ESCB), on the suburban Scarborough, Ontario, campus, provides undergraduate students and faculty with labs that feature transparency, flexibility, and adaptability, with a modular design of open, double-sided benches. Benches and associated service columns can be removed and relocated as needed, so dry lab space can be easily converted to wet lab functions without renovations.