Higher Education

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.

The University of Toronto, Mississauga, re-imagined its first-year biology teaching labs to update the space and encourage a more experiential learning environment that will hook students on biology and engage the entire building in what goes on there. They also need to accommodate classes of as many as 48 students, which their former space could not.

St. Norbert College opened the renovated and expanded Gehl-Mulva Science Center in May of 2015 in De Pere, Wis. Supporting programs in physics, math, psychology, geology, biology, and chemistry, the completed 160,000-sf facility provides 45 teaching and research labs, 10 classrooms, a large lecture hall, 15 study lounges, and 38 faculty offices. The $40 million project included a multi-level expansion of the existing structure with construction of additions at the east and west ends.

Increasing class sizes, curricular changes, and medical education mandates continue to influence the design of health science and medical education spaces, which means they must address the need for shared areas, systems-based learning and flexibility/adaptability, according to Scott Kelsey, managing principal, and Jonathan Kanda, principal, with CO Architects.

Purdue University is planning to build the $60 million Agricultural and Life Sciences Facility complex in West Lafayette, Ind. The 123,000-gsf project will provide consolidated teaching and research space for the Department of Animal Sciences. Construction will begin in February of 2016 with occupancy expected in July of 2017. Purdue will also construct the $8.8 million Centaur Regional Equine Diagnostic and Surgical Center in Shelbyville which will house academic space for the College of Veterinary Medicine as well as providing health services to horses.

North Central College broke ground in May of 2015 on a $60 million science center in Naperville, Ill. Housing the departments of biochemistry, biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, and psychology, the four-story, 125,000-sf interdisciplinary building will support progressive pedagogies for STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and math).