Higher Education

The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology opened the $80 Design Hub in November of 2012. The collaborative facility will support applied research in architecture, creative media, game design, engineering, landscape architecture, industrial design, textiles and fashion design, interior design, and urban design. RMIT is also building the $6.5 million, 10,763-sf Micro Nano Research Facility housing Class 100 and Class 10,000 cleanrooms; occupancy is expected in November of 2013.

The University of Oklahoma broke ground on the $15 million Radar Innovations Lab in October of 2012. Located on the OU Research Campus in Norman, the collaborative 35,000-sf facility will feature high bay laboratory space, prototyping fabrication areas, a testing suite, and two precision anechoic chambers. Completion is expected in fall of 2013.

The University of Hawaii is planning to build the $47.5 Pacific Health Research Lab in Kalaeloa in West Oahu. The 31,000-sf facility will provide biocontainment laboratories for the study of emerging infectious diseases. The project will be a Regional Biosafety Laboratory and is supported by funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The Secchia Center, the new home of Michigan State University's expanded College of Human Medicine and the cornerstone for life sciences in West Michigan, is expected to increase enrollment to 800 students in 2014. Its establishment in Grand Rapids serves the needs of MSU CHM students and collaborative initiatives with the College's health partners.

Queen's University Belfast is building the $51 million Centre for Experimental Medicine in the United Kingdom. The four-story facility will support research in genetics, diabetes, and degenerative eye diseases. The facility is located at Belfast City Hospital. Occupancy is expected in 2016.

Grand Valley State University is planning to build a $55 million biology building in Allendale, Mich. Designed by Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr and Huber, the 144,000-sf facility will provide smart classrooms, teaching and research labs, and faculty offices. The laboratory programming and design consultant for the project is RFD (Research Facilities Design) and the construction manager is Pioneer Construction. Completion is expected in fall of 2015.

The University of Ottawa opened its $120 million social sciences facility in fall of 2012. Designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects, the 15-story project is an expansion of the existing Vanier Hall and includes 277,700 sf of new construction and 145,000 sf of renovation. The collaborative building provides research space for neuroscience, economics, experimental psychology, management, and public policy. The facility features a 225-seat tiered lecture hall, a 120-seat classroom, a multistory atrium, and a green roof.

Louisiana Tech dedicated the 42,000-sf College of Business in November of 2012 in Ruston. The $12.5 million facility houses classrooms, teaching labs, research centers, offices, computer labs, conference rooms, and auditoriums. The technology-rich facility was designed by Yeager, Watson and Associates and features a digital forensics lab and video boards displaying business news and stock market information. Ground was broken on the project in February of 2011.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa is building the $103 million Cancer Research Center in Honolulu. Designed by Shimokawa Nakamura in partnership with ZGF Architects and Jacobs Consultancy, the five-story, 150,000-sf facility will provide advanced biomedical research laboratories and offices. The lead contractor is A.C. Kobayashi Construction of Honolulu. Ground was broken on the project in October of 2010 and occupancy is expected in February of 2013.

Kennesaw State University opened a $21 million laboratory building in October of 2012 in Kennesaw, Ga. The five-story, 73,000-sf addition will provide six teaching labs, 17 research labs, and classrooms for the College of Science and Mathematics. Designed by Perkins + Will, the collaborative facility features a confocal microscopy suite and a light-filled atrium that connects the addition to the existing science center. LEED Gold sustainable design certification will be sought for the building, which uses chilled beam technology.

Michigan State University is planning to build a $15.5 million testing and assembly building to support the planned Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. Located at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory in East Lansing, the 27,000-sf high bay project will accommodate research on superconducting radio frequency components for particle accelerators.

The University of Oregon opened the $65 million Lewis Integrative Science Building in October of 2012 in Eugene, Ore. The five-story facility provides 103,000 sf of interdisciplinary research, teaching, and collaboration space for the study of nanotechnology, molecular biology, neuroscience, and energy. Designed by THA Architecture and HDR with Lease Crutcher Lewis as construction manager, the building houses wet labs, dry labs, research offices, an MRI suite, an atrium, and shared core equipment areas.

Delaware State University broke ground on the $50 million Optical Science Center for Applied Research (OSCAR) in October of 2012. Construction will begin on the 70,000-sf facility in July of 2013 with completion expected in November of 2014. The project will house the University's Optics Program and will be built in two phases. The initial 27,000-sf phase will house labs supporting chemistry, nanochemistry, image analysis, conventional and confocal microscopy, and scanning electronic and atomic force microscopy.

The University of California, San Diego will break ground in January of 2013 on the $269 million Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute. Located adjacent to the new Jacobs Medical Center currently under construction in La Jolla, the seven-story, 315,000-sf research facility will provide collaborative labs and offices for clinical investigators, informatics researchers, engineers, and biomedical scientists. The project will support the integration of advanced genetic sequencing methods into patient diagnosis and treatment.

Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) is a constantly evolving four-year liberal arts college whose enrollment has grown to more than 9,000 since its founding in 2006. Recognizing that investment in the sciences is essential to the institution's continued growth, administrators see this new laboratory classroom building as an important step towards fulfilling current needs and anticipating the requirements of future development in the fields of laboratory biology, chemistry, and physics.