Higher Education

The Republic of Ireland announced a total of 24,000-sm of new university construction projects in August of 2009.

Southern Illinois University is planning to build a $72 million science building on its Edwardsville campus. The Engineering Building will also benefit from a $9 million expansion. Other planned projects include a $40 million health science building housing the departments of nursing, biology, and pharmacy; a $6 million expansion of the Art and Design Building; and a $4.5 million multidisciplinary laboratory at the Alton dental school.

The College of William and Mary opened the 166,000-sf Alan B. Miller Hall in August of 2009 in Williamsburg, Va. Housing the Mason School of Business, the technology-rich building houses 11 reconfigurable classrooms, a 4,000-sf multipurpose room, two seminar rooms, a communication lab, a business library, an electronic trading classroom, an atrium, and a café. Ground was broken on the $75 million facility in late March of 2007. LEED certification will be sought for the project.

The University of Hawaii Hilo is constructing a $50 million facility for the College of Pharmacy. The four-building complex is sited on ten acres and will provide teaching and research labs, classrooms, and offices. The project broke ground in October of 2008 with occupancy expected in fall of 2009.

The University of Arkansas is engaged in multiple construction projects on its Fort Smith campus. An expansion and renovation of the Boreham Library, designed by MAHG Architects, is in the preliminary stages and a $400,000 renovation of the Math-Science building is ongoing. Construction began in July of 2009 on a 130,000-sf student housing complex. The four-story, two-building project will include a dining hall and is slated for completion by fall of 2010.

Oxford Brookes University will break ground in May of 2010 on a £90 million student center in Oxford, U.K. The 23,000-sm facility will be built to attain a BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) rating of Excellent for sustainable design and construction. The facility will house teaching space, a library, a student union, a medical suite, and a food court. Completion is expected by summer of 2012.

The University of South Carolina Upstate is building the $90 million George Dean Johnson, Jr. College of Business and Economics in Spartanburg. Ground was broken for the 60,000-sf project in November of 2008 with completion expected in May of 2010. Designed by David M. Schwarz Architects with McMillan Smith & Partners as production architect, three-story facility will house classrooms, computer labs, offices, and incubator space. The construction manager for the project is Linbeck.

The University of Buffalo and Kaleida Health broke ground on a $291 million clinical care and research facility on August 3, 2009. Located on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, the ten-story, 600,000-sf project includes Kaleida Health’s Global Vascular Institute, the University at Buffalo’s Center for Clinical and Translational Research, and a biosciences incubator for the university. The collaborative facility will connect to Buffalo General Hospital and is slated for completion by late 2011.

Wofford College opened the Glendale Shoals Environmental Studies Center in July of 2009. Designed by McMillan, Smith & Partners of Spartanburg, the $1.2 million LEED-certified renovation created teaching and seminar space, a library, and laboratories for environmental science. The project is sited on 23 acres, enabling students to gather and process soil and water samples on site. Wofford College is based in Spartanburg, S.C.

Auburn University will construct the 68,000-sf Center for Advanced Science, Innovation, and Commerce in Auburn, Ala. Funded by a $14.4 million stimulus grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the $29 million science building will house 21 laboratories including three genomics labs and two simulation labs.

Rice University will begin construction in fall of 2009 on the $44.5 million Brockman Hall for Physics in Houston. The National Institute of Standards and Technology awarded $11 million in stimulus funding for the project in July of 2009.

The University of Miami was awarded $15 million in stimulus funding in July of 2009 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to build the $44 million Marine Technology and Life Sciences Seawater (MTLSS) Research Building in Miami, Fla. To be constructed at the University’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, the facility will house state-of-the-art seawater laboratories and multidisciplinary research facilities dedicated to two major areas of coastal studies—the destructive power of hurricanes and the biology of coastal waters.

President Barrack Obama proposed a $12 billion Community College Initiative on July 14, 2009. Providing direct financial assistance to institutions, the initiative would provide support for modernization and construction, distance learning, and job training. The proposal would enable an additional five million people to receive associate degrees or certificates by 2020. $2.5 billion of the funding would support loans to community colleges for facility construction and renovation.

Clemson University opened the 28,000-sf Harris A. Smith Building in mid-2009 in Clemson, S.C. Housing the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics, the $7 million facility supports instruction and research in packaging science, graphic communications, environmental science, manufacturing principles, and marketing.

The State University of New York Institute of Technology (SUNYIT) is planning to build the $45 million Computer Chip Commercialization Center in Marcy, N.Y. Created in partnership with University at Albany College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering, the facility will support R&D collaboration with private industry partners. Construction is expected to begin in fall of 2009 and reach completion in 2011.