Higher Education

The Phase II renovation of Michigan Memorial Phoenix Laboratory (MMPL)—located in a three-story, Cold-War-era facility—contains more than 3,000 sf of chemistry wet lab space, plus a 10,161-sf addition housing the University of Michigan Energy Institute (UMEI, formerly called the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute). The UMEI, previously housed in temporary administrative offices, develops, coordinates, and promotes multidisciplinary energy research and education at the University.

Newcastle University is planning to build the $83 million Science Central development in Newcastle in the United Kingdom. Designed by Hawkins\Brown in partnership with BuroHappold and BD Landscapes, the 107,640-sf facility will act as a living laboratory for urban sustainable design. Occupancy is expected in September of 2017.

Texas Tech dedicated the $22.8 million Terry Fuller Petroleum Engineering Research Building in Lubbock in February of 2014. Housing the Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering, the 43,000-sf facility features integrated teaching and research labs, smart classrooms, a fracturing techniques suite, a fluids lab, a rheology lab, a pressure volume temperature lab, and a reservoir simulation center and drilling lab. The project was designed by Kirksey Architecture and built by Vaughn Construction.

Swansea University broke ground in spring of 2014 on the $13 million Data Science Building. Located on the Singleton Park Campus, the collaborative, interdisciplinary project will be constructed adjacent to the Institute of Life Sciences facilities that are slated for occupancy in fall of 2015. The 31,000-sf Data Science @ ILS will house the Centre for the Improvement of Population Health through e-Records Research (CIPHER), the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, and the Administrative Data Research Centre Wales (ADRC Wales).

The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) and the University of California, Davis have initiated a new phase in their ongoing research collaboration by sharing resources and core services. UC Davis will benefit from on-site educational programs at the JAX mouse facility in Sacramento, Calif. JAX will provide mouse colony management services for UC Davis investigators, expediting research discoveries by preventing transportation delays.

Michigan State University broke ground in spring of 2014 on the $730 million Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. Located in East Lansing, the project will be a national user facility for nuclear science research and is created in partnership with the Department of Energy. The first $165 million phase of construction includes a 227,000-sf building with extensive underground infrastructure to accommodate a superconducting linear accelerator. Completion is expected in 2018.

The mission of the award-winning Campus for Research Excellence and Technology (CREATE) in Singapore is to stimulate innovation, discovery, and entrepreneurship through the interaction and collaboration of a broad spectrum of scientists and engineers representing world-class research universities, institutions, and corporations.

Interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs) from around the world will be co-located for five years at a time, coalescing around five research themes:

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will begin building the $84 million College of Business Administration in December of 2014. Designed to accommodate 5,000 business students by 2017, the 240,000-sf facility will feature cluster classrooms for group learning and a technology-rich finance lab. The design team includes Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York and Alley Poyner Macchietto of Omaha.

The University of Michigan is planning to build the $261 million Biological Science Building in Ann Arbor. Designed by SmithGroup JJR, the 300,000-sf facility will provide research labs, classrooms, offices, and a vivarium for the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Providing open, flexible laboratories for collaborative research, the building will be constructed adjacent to the existing Life Sciences Institute to which it will physically connect.

Nova Southeastern University broke ground in February of 2014 on the 215,000-sf Center for Collaborative Research (CCR) in Davie, Fla. The $80 million multidisciplinary facility will house wet labs, an IBM supercomputer research suite, the Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine, the Rumbaugh-Goodwin Institute for Cancer Research, and the Emil Buehler Research Center for Engineering, Science, and Mathematics. The building will also accommodate the General Clinical Research Center, the NSU Technology Incubator, and space for the United States Geological Survey.

The Energy Production Infrastructure Center (EPIC) at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, brings together the traditional disciplines of civil, environmental, computer, and electrical engineering in a collaborative, innovative research and teaching community. Activities are focused on the development of energy and power production, from microchip fabrication and development of new structural materials to solar and wind power.

The University of Scranton is building a $47.5 million center for rehabilitation education in Scranton, Pa. Supporting an interprofessional medical education pedagogy, the 116,000-sf facility will provide classrooms, simulation training suites, faculty offices, and 25 laboratories for programs in occupational therapy, physical therapy, and exercise science. The center was designed by Hemmler + Camayd and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in association with HERA Laboratory Planners.

The University of Connecticut began construction in June of 2015 on the 119,000-sf Innovation Partnership Building in Storrs. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the $170 million project will provide flexible laboratories to support collaborative R&D with industry partners in advanced manufacturing, materials science, cyber infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology.

The following is a condensed transcript of a panel discussion that took place at Tradeline’s Academic Medical and Health Science Centers 2013 Conference. The panelists are Ian McDermott, senior director of MedRIST, University Health Network, and Scott Kelsey, managing principal at CO Architects. The moderator is Derek Westfall, president of Tradeline.

Radford University will begin construction in spring of 2014 on a $53 million facility to house the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences in Radford, Va. The 143,600-sf project will enable the University to consolidate all of the college’s departments in a single facility and will provide laboratories, classrooms, offices, a television studio, a moot courtroom, an emergency operations training center, a forensic lab, and student/faculty collaboration space. The project team includes Mosely Architects and construction manager S.B.