Higher Education

The University of Central Florida is partnering with Osceola County and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council to create the $72 million Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center in Kissimmee. Housing the world’s first industry-led smart sensor consortium, the 100,000-sf research and incubation facility will be leased and operated by the University of Central Florida. The construction manager for the project is Skanska USA.
 

Stanford University is planning to construct the $95 million Photon Science Laboratory Building at SLAC National Accelerator Lab in Palo Alto, Calif. The project will provide a world-class collaborative research facility for SLAC and four joint institutes: the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, and the Photon Ultrafast Laser Science and Engineering Institute.

Winthrop-University Hospital opened the $110 million Research and Academic Center in February of 2015 in Mineola, N.Y. Designed by Perkins Eastman, the five-story, 95,000-sf facility will support translational research on pediatric and adult diabetes in conjunction with patient care and community education. The center provides classrooms, a clinical trials center, a simulation training suite, a 350-seat auditorium, and core labs for the study of diabetes, obesity, cardiopulmonary disease, and neurology.

Michigan State University is planning to build an $85 million research facility for the College of Human Medicine in Grand Rapids. The 163,000-sf facility will feature opens labs for team-based research and is slated for completion in fall of 2017. SmithGroupJJR is providing architectural and engineering services for the project, and the facility will be built by a joint venture of Rockford Construction and Clark Construction Company.

The four-story, 104,000-sf Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories building at Johns Hopkins University consolidates under one roof undergraduate labs and faculty from the departments of chemistry, biology, biophysics, and psychological and brain sciences, and the undergraduate neuroscience program. The facility connects to Mudd Hall and completes the fourth side of the Mudd/Levi/Biology complex, replacing aging lab space—much of it underground with poor circulation and sightlines and no natural light—spread throughout campus.

The University of Georgia dedicated the $97.7 million Veterinary Medical Center in Athens in February of 2015. Designed by Perkins+Will, the 300,000-sf complex includes an education building and an animal hospital. The project provides the College of Veterinary Medicine with a 160-seat auditorium, an 80-seat active learning classroom, two smaller classrooms, and an enhanced large and small animal teaching hospital. Turner Construction began building the center in spring of 2013.

The University of Pennsylvania opened the $38 million Jordan Medical Education Center in Philadelphia in January of 2015. Designed to accommodate a multidisciplinary, team-based pedagogy, the three-story, 55,000-sf project will provide the Perelman School of Medicine with two flexible 3,000-sf learning studios, eight technology-rich classrooms, a learning commons, a law auditorium and pavilion, and a variety of small group spaces.

The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) has crafted a decision-making framework based on objective standards to identify and pursue the highest priorities in a massive building boom that has roughly 95 projects valued from $10,000 to $450 million currently under construction. While a large part of that activity stems from the university’s long-range master plan, a significant portion was necessitated by the devastation of Hurricane Ike, which took 1.2 million sf of the medical school’s Galveston campus out of service in 2008. 

The four-story, 80,000-sf Research and Graduate Education Complex on the campus of Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) is a state-of-the-art biomedical research facility for researchers from the colleges of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Graduate Studies. Three floors of laboratories and support spaces house more than 30 scientists and their teams, with space for 156 bench researchers. The building also contains office space for faculty, write-up areas for research staff and students, and small-group teaching and seminar rooms.

Texas Tech University dedicated the 1,600-sf Biological Threat Research Laboratory in Lubbock in January of 2014. The BSL-3 facility supports basic and applied research on biological pathogens and toxins. Construction began on the $2.4 million project in September of 2012 and reached completion in summer of 2013.

Volunteer State Community College began constructing the $30.5 million Humanities Building in January of 2015. The 88,345-sf facility is located in Gallatin, Tenn., and will provide 23 classrooms, 18 laboratories, and 11 collaborative study spaces. Designed by Moody Nolan of Nashville, the building will also house a recording studio, an art gallery, art studios, computer labs, 56 offices, and 20 adjunct faculty rooms. Completion is expected in summer of 2016.

The National University of Ireland Galway began construction in January of 2015 on the 88,000-sf Human Biology Building. Designed by Scott Talon Walker Architects, the five-story teaching and research facility will provide labs, lecture halls, and offices for the departments of anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology. The Human Biology Building will also include a vivarium, a microscopy suite, and anatomy and mortuary space. The construction cost of the project is $34 million and the general contractor is BAM Group Ireland.

Texas A&M University has completed a $7 million renovation of Francis Hall in College Station. The historic three-story facility was built in 1918 and houses the Department of Construction Science. Designed by Brown Reynolds Watford Architects, the 32,500-sf renovation project created specialized laboratories including a BIM Cave for immersive visualization of building systems.

Located on the coast of South Florida with easy access to coral reefs, the Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystem Science at Nova Southeastern University is the only research facility in the U.S. dedicated to this line of research. The five-story building, which is designed to withstand hurricanes, accommodates the special requirements of multiple disciplines—geospatial analysis and mapping, biodiversity, plant and animal studies, genomics, and hydrodynamics—and unites them in a single collaborative environment.

The New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory is building a new 6,500-sf facility in Durham. Located on the campus of the University of New Hampshire, the $2.5 million project will support the detection and diagnosis of infectious diseases. The facility represents a partnership between the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture and the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets & Food.