Higher Education

Michigan State University broke ground on the $90 million Secchia Center in Grand Rapids in April of 2008. Housing MSU’s College of Human Medicine, the project will support medical education and biomedical research in the areas of cancer, obesity, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and neurobiology. The 180,000-sf, seven-story facility will include teaching laboratories, classrooms, offices, and student areas. The Secchia Center is slated for occupancy in fall of 2010.

Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science broke ground on the $43 million Life Sciences Research and Nursing Education Building in Los Angeles on April 18, 2008. The two-story, 63,000-sf building will house comprehensive nursing instruction for the Mervyn S. Dymally School of Nursing, and biomedical and clinical research laboratories for the College of Medicine and the College of Science and Health. Completion is expected by fall 2009. The architectural firm for project is HOK.

The University of British Columbia is engaged in a $45 million expansion and renovation of the Sauder School of Business in Vancouver. The project contractor is Scott Construction, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Aecon Group. The project will create new career and business centers and will involve the renovation of a five-story lecture hall and library. Completion is slated for October 2009.

The State University of New York at Oswego is planning the renovation and expansion of the existing 80,000-sf Piez Hall to create a 262,000-sf state-of-the-art science center. The first phase of the project, designed by Cannon Design, consists of renovations to Piez Hall and the construction of a 50,000-sf addition; groundbreaking is slated for summer of 2008. The second phase involves the construction of a $69.5 million, 132,000-sf laboratory building fronting Piez Hall.

Lewis and Clark Community College initiated construction on the $16.5 million National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC) Field Station in April of 2008. Located adjacent to the Great Rivers Museum in Alton, Ill., the river research facility will incorporate sustainable design elements including a vegetative roof, bamboo floors, innovative waste water technology, and on-site wind and hydro power. LEED Platinum certification will be sought for the project.

SUNY Upstate Medical University is planning $300 million in improvements to its Syracuse, N.Y. campus. Funded by $320 million from the state of New York, the university will initiate a $72 million expansion of the Institute for Human Performance, creating needed research laboratories and constructing an 85,000-sf addition. A $150 million project will build new heart and cancer centers and modernize inpatient rooms at University Hospital.

The University of Michigan dedicated the Robert H. Lurie Nanofabrication Facility at the School of Engineering in Ann Arbor on April 12, 2008. Designed by SmithGroup, the project is a 32,000-sf addition to the existing Solid State Electronics Laboratory (SSEL) cleanroom facility. Featuring a three-level cleanroom concept, the project includes a fab, sub-fab, and mechanical space.

The University of British Columbia has selected Toronto-based Diamond + Schmitt Architects in joint venture with CEI Architecture and Planning to design the new Faculty of Law building in Vancouver. This new facility is designed to meet the needs of a new generation of law students and legal researchers, replacing the existing Law School, currently housed in two aging structures. The 13,500-sm building will provide space for more than 50 faculty members, 600 undergraduates, and 100 graduate students.

San Diego Mesa College is constructing the 49,000-sf Allied Health building in Linda Mesa, Calif. The contractor for the $20 million project is McCarthy. The facility will house a computer lab, classrooms, faculty and staff offices, and medical training laboratories for physical therapy, dentistry, and clinical skills. Completion is scheduled for August 2008.

Cornell University is engaged in a $6 million renovation to create a biofuels laboratory in Ithaca, N.Y. The project involves the renovation of 11,500-sf of former agricultural engineering, power, and machinery lab space in Riley Robb Hall. Completion is slated for January of 2009. Housing fermenters, incubators, and analytical equipment, the facility will accommodate between 12 to 18 faculty members and 25 graduate students currently dispersed in other campus locations.

Colby College is planning to construct a new 30,000-sf science building in Waterville, Maine. Housing faculty offices, student research space, classrooms, and a computer lab, the facility will support the departments of computer science, mathematics, and psychology. Completion is slated for fall of 2010.

The University of Rochester has received $50 million from the State of New York’s Upstate Revitalization Fund to construct the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. The 150,000-sf facility will house labs and offices for the development and commercialization of medical research.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore dedicated Building Two at its BioPark development in April of 2008. The six-story, 238,000-sf research facility will house tenants including the Institute for Genome Services, Gliknik, Paragon Bioservices, Westat, and the 38,000-sf Baltimore City Community College’s Bioscience Institute. The first two BioPark buildings were developed by Wexford Science & Technology. UMB broke ground on Building Three in spring of 2008. BioPark’s $500 million, 1.2 million-sf campus will be comprised of ten buildings upon completion.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is planning a renovation and expansion of the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center in Troy, N.Y.  The project aims to reduce existing deferred maintenance costs on the facility, constructed in 1961, by $20 million. An addition called the New Center for Science will connect via a glass atrium to the existing science center and will add 100,000-sf to 120,000-sf of wet laboratories for biology and physics teaching and research. Renovations to the existing facility will create dry labs, classrooms, offices, and conference rooms.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore received $62 million from the state of Maryland in April of 2008 to construct an addition to the School of Pharmacy. The seven-story facility will house four floors of clinical and translational research in pharmacogenetics, nanomedicine, and drug discovery. Featuring technology-rich lecture halls and a patient interaction laboratory, the 92,635-sf project will connect to the existing Pharmacy Hall via a glass pavilion.