Montana State University is planning to build the $50 million Norm Asbjornson Innovation Center in Bozeman. Designed by ZGF Architects of Seattle and A&E Architects of Billings, the three-story facility will house classrooms, labs, offices, and a presentation hall. The laboratory programming and design consultant for the project is Research Facilities Design (RFD).
Indiana University broke ground in June of 2015 on the $45 million Arts and Sciences building in Gary, Ind. Created in partnership with Ivy Tech Community College, the three-story, 133,500-sf project will accommodate IU Northwest's programs in fine and performing arts as well as providing academic and administrative space. Ivy Tech’s science teaching labs and admissions offices will occupy 30 percent of the facility. The project will include shared classrooms and informal study spaces as well as a 500-seat auditorium and a black box theater.
Iowa State University is planning to build the $52 million Advanced Teaching and Research Building on its Ames campus. The five-story, 115,000-gsf facility will provide classrooms, teaching labs, faculty offices, and research space. Bessey Hall will also undergo a $28 million renovation, including construction of a four-story, 45,000-gsf addition, to provide undergraduate teaching and research labs. Work will begin on both projects in spring of 2016.
Michigan State University broke ground in June of 2015 on an $88.1 million biomedical research facility in the Grand Rapids Innovation Park. The six-story, 162,800-sf project will provide the College of Human Medicine with open labs to support up to 44 research teams. Designed by SmithGroupJJR with Ellenzweig as laboratory design consultant, the facility will feature core labs for flow cytometry, bioinformatics, microscopy, and long-term storage.
Loma Linda University Health is building a health care and education center in San Bernardino, Calif. Created in partnership with San Manuel Gateway College, the 150,000-sf facility will accommodate certificate programs in nursing, medical and dental assisting, phlebotomy, and insurance coding. The project will include a multi-specialty clinic operated by Social Action Community Health System and is funded in part by a $10 million donation from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. Occupancy is expected in spring of 2016.
A new 650,000-sf, $295 million complex in Portland, Oregon, consists of the 12-story Skourtes Tower and five-story Collaborative Life Sciences Building (CLSB), which are connected by an atrium nicknamed the “mixing bowl” because it brings everyone together in a central location. The complex supports an interprofessional, multi-institutional program for medicine, nursing, allied health, dentistry, and undergraduate sciences, as well as pure research.
North Carolina A&T State University began site work in June of 2015 for a $90 million student center in Greensboro, N.C. The three-story, 150,000-sf facility will provide a central commons area, a 500-seat lecture hall, conference and study rooms, offices, restaurants, a bookstore, and a 250-seat dining facility. The project was designed by Cannon Design and Vines Architecture and is being built by a partnership of Balfour Beatty Construction, D.H.
The University of Glasgow began construction in fall of 2015 on the $25 million Imaging Centre of Excellence at the South Glasgow Hospitals Campus in Scotland. Designed by BMJ Architects, the project includes redevelopment of an existing building to provide advanced medical research space for neurological and cardiovascular conditions and will feature a 7-Tesla clinical MRI scanner.
London’s King’s College has tapped building information systems and financial data to maximize the use of space while reducing energy costs and carbon emissions by employing three strategies: leveraging shareable and flexible space, challenging assumptions about the need for individual offices, and having leaders set progressive examples for other staff. Efficiently planned and utilized spaces are inextricably linked with sustainability for growing academic institutions like King’s College, especially when the cost of property is expensive, according to architect and planner Ian Caldwell.
Portland State University will break ground in January of 2016 on the Viking Pavilion and Education Center. The $32 million project includes construction of a 3,100-seat venue for public events and renovation of the existing Peter W. Stott Center to provide 30,000 sf of classroom and study space for programs in health and exercise science.
Purdue University will begin construction in July of 2015 on the $79 million Thomas S. and Harvey D. Wilmeth Active Learning Center in West Lafayette, Ind. The 164,000-gsf facility will provide 27 classrooms as well as housing six engineering and science libraries. Designed by BSA LifeStructures to promote interdisciplinary collaboration, the center will feature flexible classrooms that can act as group study spaces in the evenings. Completion is expected in August of 2017.
Tyler Junior College completed construction of the $47.5 million Robert M. Rogers Nursing & Health Sciences Center in May of 2015. Tripling available healthcare instructional space, the 137,000-sf facility features flexible teaching labs and classrooms as well as a dental clinic and a campus health center. SmithGroupJJR provided architectural and engineering services for the facility in collaboration with Eubanks Harris Roberts Craig. HGR+Turner was the construction manager-at-risk.
Ferris State University will open the Shimadzu Core Laboratory for Academic and Research Excellence in fall of 2015. Located in the Arts and Sciences Complex in Big Rapids, Mich., the facility will include seven new instruments supplied by the Shimadzu Corporation with a total value of $500,000. The core lab will feature advanced spectrophotometry equipment to support student research in chemistry, physics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and forensic science.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security broke ground in May of 2015 on the $835 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kan. Created in partnership with Kansas State University, the 574,000-gsf facility will provide shared BSL-2, BSL-3, and BSL-4 research space for the study of infectious diseases and select agents. The project is being built by the joint venture construction team of McCarthy/Mortenson.
Iowa State University's transgenic swine facility at Zumwalt Station Farm in Ames received an Award of Distinction from the Modular Building Institute in May of 2015. The 2,904-sf project was designed, manufactured, and installed by Art's Way Scientific. Supporting research on the genetic modification of domestic animals for agricultural and biomedical applications, the standalone facility incorporates biosafety features to protect a closed herd of swine.
