Higher Education

The University of New Mexico is partnering with the Sandia Foundation to develop the UNM West Campus in Rio Rancho. The first $10.98 million facility is slated for completion in December of 2009. The 40,000-sf building will house classrooms, student services, incubator space, and administrative offices for the UNM Medical Group. The project will support institutional collaboration with Central New Mexico Community College and New Mexico State University.

The University of Maryland is engaged in a $545,000 upgrade of three heating and cooling systems on its College Park campus. The project will reduce energy consumption by 55 percent and will replace aging chillers in three facilities: the Lab for Physical Sciences, the Animal Science Wing, and the Physics/Superconductivity Center.

The University of Texas at El Paso broke ground on a $60 million facility for the College of Health Sciences and School of Nursing in November of 2008. The 130,000-sf building will feature a 16,000-sf clinical learning center and a biomedical research laboratory. Occupancy is slated for spring of 2011.

The University of Hawai'i is planning to build the $61 million Information Technology Center in Mãnoa. Featuring energy efficient electrical and cooling systems, the facility will support the University’s IT infrastructure as well as providing space for instructors to develop content for teaching and research. Design is expected to reach completion in September of 2009 with construction commencing in January of 2010 and reaching completion in July of 2011.

The University of Edinburgh is building the £7 million Centre for Systems Biology in Edinburgh, Scotland. The project began construction in January of 2008 and is slated for completion in 2009. The Centre will be housed in 900 sm in the C.H. Waddington Building, a three-story facility that will accommodate multidisciplinary laboratories and office space for research in biological sciences, informatics, and infectious diseases. The building will also house the Centre for Translational and Chemical Biology.

The Van Andel Institute is constructing a second research building on its campus in Grand Rapids, Mich. The $175 million, 240,000-sf facility was designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects of New York. The eight-story building will house neurological and translational research laboratories, the Van Andel Graduate School, and space for Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine. The joint venture construction team is Owen-Ames-Kimball Company of Grand Rapids and The Hunt Construction Group.

The University of Toronto will begin construction on the $92 million Rotman School of Management in spring of 2009. Designed for maximum integration, the nine-story building will support progressive business education with new classrooms, research institutes, a 400-seat event facility, and social interaction spaces. The LEED-certified facility is being designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB). Completion is expected in 2011.

West Virginia University opened the $30 million Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute in Morgantown in October of 2008. The three-story, 78,000-sf facility houses technology-rich neuroscience research laboratories and can accommodate up to 100 investigators.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center is constructing the $74 million Durham Research Center II in Omaha. Construction began on the 10-story, 252,179-gsf facility in August of 2006. Featuring 98 technology-rich laboratories, investigator offices, and lab support, the facility will connect to UNMC’s existing Durham Research Center via a covered parkway.

Southern Arkansas University is constructing the $16.7 million University Science and Technology Center in Magnolia, Ark. Slated for completion in 2009, the 64,000-sf facility will house the College of Science and Technology’s departments of biology, chemistry, and physics. The project team includes architectural firm WER and Associates and CDI Contractors, both headquartered in Little Rock.

Washington State University is planning to initiate construction in summer of 2009 on two facilities on its 350-acre Vancouver campus. The $59.4 million, 71,600-sf project was designed by LMN Architects of Seattle. The $42.6 million, four-story Applied Technology Classroom Building will provide instructional spaces, engineering research facilities, and faculty offices.

Perot Systems began construction in October of 2008 on its 150,000-sf office facility in Lincoln, Neb. Located in the University of Nebraska Technology Park, the project is being built by KDC (Koll Development Company) to meet LEED sustainable design standards. Completion is slated for the third quarter of 2009. The building will house 1,000 employees. Perot Systems is a provider of information technology and business services.

The University of Queensland began construction in fall of 2008 on the $7 million Mineral Characterisation Research Facility (MCRF) in Brisbane, Australia. Located in the University's experimental mine at Indooroopilly, the project aims to boost metal production and reduce the use of mining electricity. The three-story facility is part of the Sustainable Minerals Institute and will accommodate research labs and office space for academic and industry partners. Completion is expected in mid-2009.

The University of Illinois broke ground on the $72.5 million Petascale Computing Facility at the National Center for Super Computing Applications in Urbana-Champaign in November of 2008. The 95,000-sf Blue Waters Data Processing Center will include a command center, offices, loading docks, and a system administration center. A 20,000-sf water-cooled machine room with a six-foot raised floor will hold the IBM Blue Waters supercomputer and other systems.

Marshall University is constructing an off-campus forensic science center in Huntington, W.V. The $4 million project will house two classrooms and a digital evidence laboratory. The three-story, 15,000-sf facility will open in August of 2009.