Higher Education

Umpqua Community College is building the Danny Lang Teaching, Learning and Event Center in Roseburg, Ore. The $6.8 million facility will house the Southern Oregon Wine Institute and the college's viticulture and enology programs. The Lang Center will provide two labs, a classroom, a tasting room, an event center, a grape-crushing pad, a kitchen, a fermentation room, and three wine cellars. Construction began on the facility in September of 2010 with completion expected in September of 2011. The project is supported by $4.25 million in federal stimulus funding.

Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine broke ground on the first phase of a $74 million Small Animal Teaching Hospital complex in December of 2010. A 34,000-sf education wing is slated for completion in spring of 2012. The second phase of construction will deliver a 200,000-sf Small Animal Teaching Hospital in 2014. The project was designed by Foil Wyatt Architects and Jova/Daniels/Busby.

Texas A&M University will begin construction in late 2011 on the Urban Living Laboratory in Dallas. The mixed-use development will provide a living laboratory for sustainable design with residential, retail, office, and hotel space. The $127 million project will utilize sensors to collect data on building systems and technologies. The public-private development will be built by Realty Appreciation. The first phase of construction includes 300 apartment units. Subsequent construction phases will create a 1.1 million-sf sustainable community. 

The University of Nebraska Medical Center broke ground on the $30 million Truhlsen Eye Institute in Omaha in December of 2010. Housing research and clinical space for the department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, the 47,000-sf facility will feature a diagnostic imaging center and specialty clinics. Completion is expected in 2012. A planned second phase of construction will provide surgical suites.

The $700 million Singapore University of Technology and Design is slated for completion in 2013. Developed in partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the school will provide interdisciplinary education in engineering, architecture, and information systems and will support the development of new teaching paradigms. Ground was broken on the project in July of 2010.

Duke University opened two new facilities at the Duke Lemur Center in December of 2010. The $10.4 million project was designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent and is located in Durham, N.C. The Releasable Building provides dry lab space and housing for 60 lemurs in a free range environment sited on 69 forested acres. The Semi-Releasable Building includes a wet lab for biological and chemical analysis and houses 80 lemurs with limited outdoor access.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison opened the $205 million Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery in December of 2010. The 300,000-sf facility houses research offices, an atrium, and flexible dry, wet, and combination laboratories. Ground was broken on the interdisciplinary biomedical research building in May of 2008. Built with four stories above ground and one below, the project will support collaborative research in biotechnology, health science, nanotechnology, engineering, and stem cell research.

Central Oregon Community College will begin construction in early 2011 on the $18 million Health Career Building in Bend. The 47,000-sf facility will house classrooms and teaching labs for nursing, pharmacy technician, medical assisting, dental assisting, and licensed massage therapy. Occupancy is expected in spring of 2012. The general contractor for the project is HSW Builders of Bend.

The Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) will build the 80,000-sm Plastics Application Development Center at King Saud University in Riyadh. The project will house 150 scientists and over 300 advanced research instruments in 43,000 nsm of building space. The construction cost of the facility is estimated at SR475 million. The Plastics Application Development Center will promote the creation of new products for packaging, automotive materials, and compounding.

The University of Wisconsin broke ground on the $75.7 million Wisconsin Energy Institute in Madison in November of 2010. The 200,000-sf facility was designed by HOK and Potter Lawson with M.A. Mortenson as general contractor. The sustainably designed building will house labs, offices, high bay space, and conference rooms for clean energy research and development. A second phase of construction will provide classrooms, a demonstration lab, and offices.

Laurentian University is building the 36,000-sf Living With Lakes Centre in Sudbury, Ontario. Located on Lake Ramsey, the two-building facility will provide research labs and multimedia rooms for the Co-operative Freshwater Ecology Unit. LEED Platinum sustainable design certification will be sought for the $21 million project, which features a geothermal system designed to accommodate the climate of 2050. Completion is expected in May of 2011.

Newman University College has awarded Morgan Sindall an £8.5 million contract to construct a new library and entrance building in Birmingham. The three-story project will include a library, teaching space, offices, an atrium, and a café. Completion is expected in January of 2012.

The University of Alberta is building the $360.7-million Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science (CCIS) in Edmonton. Construction began on the facility in November of 2008 with completion expected in 2011. The building will provide teaching labs, lecture halls, research labs, and faculty offices. The 53,000-sm project was designed by ONPA and is being built by PCL Construction Management. Consulting engineers included Read Jones Christoffersen, Stantec, and Hemisphere.

The University of Nottingham will partner with GlaxoSmithKline to build a green chemistry research facility on its Jubilee campus in the United Kingdom. The climate-neutral building will provide instructional space and laboratories for the development of safer chemical processes and products.

Brock University is building the $111 million Cairns Family Health and Bioscience Research Complex in St. Catherines, Ontario. The 176,000-sf project will house Canada's only CL3 biocontainment facility dedicated entirely to research. Designed by architectsAlliance in association with Payette, the complex is being built by EllisDon with Crossey Engineering as electrical and mechanical consultant, MHPM as project manager, and Halsall Associates as LEED consultant.