Higher Education

Saint Louis University dedicated the $82 million Edward A. Doisy Research Center in St. Louis, Mo., on December 7, 2007. Designed by Cannon Design, the 206,000-sf, 10-story glass and steel tower is the centerpiece of the University’s multi-million dollar program to accelerate its steady growth in funded basic medical science research and clinical translational research. The state-of-the-art facility features many open labs to foster exploration, research, and communication of information and ideas among the next generation of medical leaders.

The University of Iowa opened its new research facility at the Hygienic Laboratory in Ankeny on December 4, 2007. Designed as a resource for bioterrorism prevention, the laboratory will provide rapid testing capabilities for infectious disease agents. The Ankeny facility is part of the nationwide Laboratory Response Network and will serve as the state of Iowa's environmental and public health laboratory.

Texas Tech Health Sciences Center opened the $48 million Medical Education Building II in El Paso in December of 2007. Part of the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, the 125,000-sf facility is the second in a planned three-building campus. The four story facility houses classrooms, teaching labs, computer simulation labs with manikins, a digital library, and administrative offices.

The University of California, Berkeley is planning a $130 million renovation of its Clark Kerr campus. The project will include renovation of seven of the 20 buildings on the historic campus as well as upgrades to the existing steam plant and auditorium building. The renovation will be developed in two phases; each 97,000-sf phase is expected to reach completion in 10 to 11 months.

The University of Florida is partnering with Alexandria Real Estate Equities to construct approximately 160,000-sf of life science and technology incubator space on the University’s Gainesville campus. The first 80,000-sf facility will be called The Innovation Center and will begin construction in 2008. Completion is slated for 2010. The building will feature flexible and adaptable laboratory and office space. A second facility will be built within several years.

Harvard University opened the $155 million Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering (LISE) in Cambridge in November of 2007. Sited mostly underground, the building includes a 10,000-sf cleanroom with advanced filtration capabilities and vibration-isolated architecture. Designed by Rafael Moneo, LISE features open spaces for spontaneous researcher interaction and collaboration.

Lincoln University broke ground on a new science and general classroom facility on its Chester County, Philadelphia campus in November of 2007. Designed by Philadelphia-based KlingStubbins, Lincoln University’s High Technology Building is the most recent physical enhancement to America’s first historically black university. The new 113,000-gsf facility is the first element within a new quadrangle south of the main campus and is sited to define the eastern boundary of Lincoln’s planned academic development.

St. Lawrence University completed the 120,000-sf Johnson Hall of Science in Boston in fall of 2007. The sustainable laboratory facility was designed by KlingStubbins in association with Croxton Collaborative. Responding to an increased focus on research in the St. Lawrence science curriculum, the design produced a state-of-the-art, fully modernized building for biology, chemistry, physics, geology, math and computer sciences, environmental science, and psychology.

Syracuse University is constructing the 230,000-sf Life Sciences Complex in Syracuse, N.Y. The project broke ground in April 2006 and is slated to reach completion in fall of 2008. Housing the departments of biology, chemistry, and biochemistry, the $107 million facility is the University's largest, most ambitious construction project to date. The five-story building is designed to foster interactive and interdisciplinary research, instruction, and training with a particular emphasis on cell signaling, biocomplexity, and environmental systems.

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) was awarded $4 million in federal funds in November of 2007 to acquire equipment for its Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) in Memphis. As part of the Department of Defense's 2008 budget, the funding will provide sophisticated pathogen detection equipment for the study of emerging infectious diseases. Completion of the UTHSC RBL at the UT-Baptist Research Park is slated for summer of 2008.

Mississippi State University dedicated its new 40,000-sf agricultural and biological engineering building in Starkville on November 10, 2007. The three-story plus basement facility houses classrooms, offices, and research laboratories and replaces the 1950s-era Howell Engineering Building. The construction cost of the facility was $11 million. 

The University of Notre Dame broke ground in November of 2007 on the $69.4 million Stinson-Remick Hall of Engineering in Notre Dame, Ind. The 142,000-sf facility will house a nanotechnology research center, an energy center, an 11,800-sf semiconductor processing and device fabrication cleanroom, and an undergraduate learning center. Designed to enhance interdisciplinary research, the project is slated for completion by late 2009.

Kettering University broke ground in late fall of 2007 on the 12,000-sf Science and Technology Incubator Building in Flint, Mich. The $2.7 million multi-tenant facility will house ten 500-sf dedicated research laboratory suites and ten executive offices. Providing space for scientific and technologically-based start-up companies, the project will begin construction in spring of 2008 and reach completion in spring of 2009.

Dalhousie University, in partnership with Capital Health and the IWK Health Centre, is planning to construct the $42 million Life Sciences Research Institute (LSRI) in Halifax. Designed by Halifax-based WHW Architects, the 115,000-sf, five-story LSRI will house post-incubator research projects and laboratory space for tenants, two floors of labs for the Brain Repair Centre, and a CL2/APL2 Integrated Animal Care Facility (IACF) for non-severe biological agent research on the fifth floor.

Mount St. Mary's College held a dedication ceremony for $6 million in renovated and expanded science facilities in Los Angeles, Calif. on Oct. 29, 2007. At the new Seaver Science Center, the College renovated the classrooms and labs on the physical sciences floor and the biological sciences floor, including upgrades to the Physics Lab and the Instrumentation Lab. The Photolysis Lab was expanded, and two new labs were constructed, the Neurological Plasticity and Aging Lab and the Molecular Biology Research Lab. The facility also houses the newly created Ralph M.