Aston University began construction in fall of 2011 on the £16.5 million European Bioenergy Research Institute in Birmingham in the United Kingdom. The facility will house research laboratories for the development of advanced energy technologies. The building will be powered by renewable energy from pilot scale photo bioreactors and a small scale industrial power plant which will generate heat and power from biomass.
The Wayne State University School of Medicine is planning to build a 62,840-sf facility in Detroit for its Department of Psychiatry. Consolidating three existing facilities, the five-story building will provide clinical, academic, and research space. Completion is expected in late 2012. The project developer is Queen Lillian LLC.
The University of Wales, Newport has attained BREAAM Excellent for the first phase of redevelopment of its city center campus. Designed by BDP Architects and built by Willmott Dixon, the £35 million building houses the University's Faculty of Arts and Business and includes a contemporary arts center, extensive exhibition space, and a national photographic archive.
The University of Massachusetts will build the $186.5 million Commonwealth Honors College campus in Amherst. Slated for completion in 2013, the complex will include classrooms, administrative offices, a conference center, student housing, and apartments for faculty and staff. Site preparation began in June of 2011.
Ohio State University will begin building the $126 million Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry Building in Columbus in summer of 2012. The 225,000-gsf facility will house research laboratories.
The University of British Columbia opened the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) in Vancouver in November of 2011. The $37 million facility is heralded as the most sustainable building in North America and will act as a living laboratory for research and innovation on global sustainability challenges. CIRS is one of only a handful of buildings worldwide that provide “net positive” benefits to the environment.
The University of Manchester completed the £20 million Dalton Cumbrian Facility in November of 2011. The laboratory is located in Moor Row, Cumbria, in the Westlakes Science and Technology Park. Housing the Dalton Nuclear Institute, the facility will support research on radiochemistry, radiation science, nuclear engineering, decommissioning, and radioactive waste management. The project team includes Wilson Mason Architects, project manager Drivers Jonas Deloitte, and contractor Morgan Sindall.
Michigan State University is building the $45 million Eli and Edith Broad Art Museum in East Lansing. The three-story, 46,000-sf facility will include exhibition space, an education wing, retail, and dining. LEED sustainable design certification will be sought for the project, which will feature daylighting, occupancy sensors, and advanced HVAC systems. Occupancy is expected in April of 2012. The project team includes:
The University of California, Davis broke ground in November of 2011 on the 8,000-sf Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery Building. The $4 million facility will provide energy for UC Davis' winery with photovoltaic arrays and fuel cells, as well as supplying captured rainwater for cleaning and landscaping. The project will enable the adjacent teaching winery, brewery, and food-processing complex to be entirely self sustainable and carbon neutral. Completion is expected in late 2012.
The University of Western Ontario completed the first 150,000-sf phase of construction for the Richard Ivey School of Business in November of 2011. The completed 270,000-sf facility will provide world-class teaching and research space and is expected to attain LEED Gold sustainable design certification. The construction cost is estimated at $110 million.
Paradise Valley Community College opened its newly renovated Building Q in November of 2011 in Phoenix. Designed by SmithGroup, the $10.6 million, 69,600-sf project converted an existing county library building into an academic facility for mathematics with 23 classrooms, faculty offices, and support space. The building houses the college's Center for Teaching and Learning and Continuing Education and the 10,700-sf Arizona Agribusiness and Equine Center Charter School. The construction manager for the project was Jokake Construction.
SUNY Plattsburgh broke ground on a $14.2 million facility to house the Department of Computer Science and the School of Business and Economics in November of 2011. Designed by Gwathmey, Siegel, Kaufman and Associates, the building will provide faculty offices, technology-rich classrooms, a trading room, an accounting lab, reconfigurable computer labs, seminar rooms, study rooms, a rooftop garden, and two student commons. The general contractor is Pike Construction.
The University of Minnesota has installed a new wind turbine at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory in Minneapolis. The 2.5 megawatt Clipper Liberty wind turbine will support teaching, research, and training for the sustainable energy industry. The turbine was funded by an award of $7.9 million in federal stimulus funding.
The University of Strathclyde opened the $58 million Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences in November of 2011 in Glasgow. The 86,111-sf facility was designed by Sheppard Robson to accommodate interdisciplinary research and development of advanced therapeutics. The six-story project houses a 160-seat teaching lab, research labs, a cleanroom, and the departments of physiology, bioscience, immunology, pharmaceutical sciences, and pharmacology.
Construction began in August of 2011 on the $168 million Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke. Representing a partnership of MIT, Harvard, Boston University, Northeastern University, and the University of Massachusetts system, the two-story, 90,000-sf complex is strategically sited to benefit from hydroelectric power resources and lower electricity costs. The project will support the computational research needs of the five institutions.
