Higher Education

The University of California is planning to construct the $300 million Medical Education Building in Merced. Designed by ZGF Architects, the 203,500-sf project will serve as the headquarters for a multicampus career pathway developed in partnership with UC San Francisco and UCSF Fresno. The four-story structure will provide class laboratories, specialized learning venues, general assignment classrooms, clinical practicum spaces, research labs, offices, and a café.

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory will break ground in summer of 2024 on a 68,000-sf research facility at the Forrestal campus in Plainsboro. Designed by SmithGroup, the Princeton Plasma Innovation Center will offer laboratories of various sizes where PPPL investigators will engage in shared discovery with academic and industry partners. Open meeting venues with whiteboards will encourage the spontaneous exchange of ideas, and collaboration spaces equipped with advanced technologies will support interaction with remote participants.

Construction will begin in April of 2024 on the Wichita Biomedical Campus, an innovation hub where academia and industry can engage with clinical partners to create new healthcare solutions. The centerpiece of the project is a 471,000-sf tower designed by CO Architects and Helix Architecture + Design. The first four floors will collocate Wichita State University’s College of Health Professions and Speech-Language Hearing Clinic with WSU Tech’s Health Professions program.

The University of Pennsylvania is building the $173.5 million Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science & Technology in Philadelphia. Designed by Behnisch Architekten, the seven-story, 113,764-sf facility will enable investigators from the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences to discover new solutions for energy generation, storage, and management.

In the 12 years between the conception and funding of Thurgood Marshall Hall and when an architect was hired to design it, the University of Maryland had added four research centers with 40 faculty and staff, creating a 20% shortfall in space and funding. Then at 60% construction drawings, the School of Public Policy added an undergraduate program. Learn how the university made creative use of every available corner of the new building to provide the program the students and faculty require.

The University of North Dakota was ready to build a new facility for its business and public administration students. They had a significant donor on board to help, but how to make up the rest of the budget? The answer, it turned out, was to engage donors not just in the funding, but in the design and function of the building, and incorporate their ideas into its fabric.

Cal Poly will begin construction in April of 2024 on the Charles and Claire Jacobsen Animal Health Center in San Luis Obispo. Designed by Gensler, the $30 million project will address a growing demand for courses in veterinary medicine and animal agriculture. Clinical environments will be collocated with academic functions to allow students to engage in experiential learning and training. Providing 17,500 sf of program space, the state-of-the-art building will offer wet labs, examination and procedure rooms, a surgical suite, and a necropsy facility.

Louisiana State University broke ground in March of 2024 on the Our Lady of the Lake Health Interdisciplinary Science Building in Baton Rouge. Designed by EskewDumezRipple, the $148 million facility will offer leading-edge environments for STEM education and discovery. The four-story, 200,000-sf structure will drive innovation in five key focus areas: geology and geophysics, chemistry, biological sciences, astronomy, and mathematics and physics.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison will begin construction in May of 2026 on a $420 million facility for the College of Engineering. Standing seven stories above grade with one basement level, the 395,000-gsf structure will provide 211,000 asf of collaborative teaching and research space. Multidisciplinary labs will open onto flexible meeting and write-up areas, accompanied by dedicated venues for engaging with industry partners. The modular and adaptable building will promote experiential education with active learning classrooms, studios, workshops, and maker spaces.

Clemson University broke ground in March of 2024 on a new home for the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation. Designed by Moseley Architects, the $68.3 million facility will prepare the next generation of agribusiness leaders for rewarding careers in natural resource management. The four-story, 85,000-sf building will provide teaching and research labs, classrooms, collaboration spaces, support areas, and offices for faculty and staff.

Miami University opened the $58 million Richard M. McVey Data Science Building in March of 2024 in Oxford, Ohio. Designed by BHDP Architecture and CannonDesign, the 92,000-sf facility provides collaborative environments for learning, making, and discovery.

Gavilan College is expanding into San Benito County with the development of a new campus in Hollister. Designed by Gensler and Quattrocchi Kwok Architects, the first $60 million phase of construction will provide a 34,000-sf facility housing classrooms, a learning resource center, science and computer labs, a community room, administrative offices, support spaces, and a café. A welcoming lobby will encourage students to engage in informal interaction or explore academic offerings.

The Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research broke ground in February of 2024 on the AU$55 million Lang AO Medical Research Building - MacArthur. Located next to Campbelltown Hospital, the 63,000-sf project will provide state-of-the-art laboratories for the study of diabetes, pediatrics, addiction, mental illness, and indigenous health, and pediatrics. BVN Architecture’s vision for the translational facility interweaves collaboration spaces and instrumentation suites with flexible, open settings for shared discovery.

Increasing demand for BSL-3 and ABSL-3 lab space in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is driving up interest in renovating existing research facilities to accommodate these high-containment spaces. Even a small BSL-3 lab can be a costly undertaking, with special attention required for security of both personnel and biohazards, location in the building, and waste disposal, as well as the design and commissioning of exhaust system.

The new Science and Engineering Building (SEB), completed in 2020 on the campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio, is helping the engineering, biology, and chemistry departments overcome the challenges of inadequate infrastructure, crowded instructional rooms, poor access between labs across multiple buildings, insufficient lab support areas, and lack of space to accommodate capstone projects.