Higher Education

UC Davis is proposing to construct five new buildings at the California National Primate Research Center in Davis, Calif. A $5.3-million, 10,000-sf building would accommodate virology and immunology research and would include a 1,100-sf BSL-3 laboratory. Four additional modular buildings would have a footprint of approximately 1,500 sf each, two comprised of laboratory space and two housing office space. Each of the modular buildings would cost approximately $800,000.

Gartnavel General Hospital has initiated construction on the £9.5-million Paul O’Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre in Glasgow, Scotland. The facility will feature three floors of laboratory space for blood diagnostics and treatment including hematology, hematooncology, immunology, tissue typing, and blood cancer research. The Leukaemia Research Centre is a joint project of the National Health Service for Scotland and the University of Glasgow and is located on the same site as the West of Scotland Beatson Oncology Centre.

The University of Connecticut has purchased the 113,000-sf FarmTech building in Farmington and will spend $35-million to renovate it as a Center of Innovation for stem cell, genetics, and bioengineering research. Sited on 24 acres, the cross-disciplinary, collaborative facility will house wet and dry laboratories, business incubator space, classrooms, and the University’s human embryonic stem cell core laboratory. Sustainable design features of the building will include heat recovery systems and gray water recycling. The Center of Innovation is expected to open in 2009.

The University of Texas, Austin will renovate the 256,000-sf Experimental Science Building to accommodate modern academic science with technology-enabled classrooms, offices, and undergraduate teaching and research labs. The $125-million project will help to recruit and retain faculty in the fields of neuroscience, computational biology, environmental sciences, pharmacy, and molecular and cellular biology.

Idaho State University is partnering with the Idaho National Laboratory to construct the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) in Idaho Falls. The CAES facility will be an international user facility for promoting and performing research and revitalizing education and training in nuclear energy science, engineering, technology, and related disciplines. The facility is expected to encompass 50,000 gsf to 60,000 gsf with approximately half of the building dedicated to laboratory space. Occupancy is slated for 2008.

The University of Memphis in Tennessee will spend $36 million on four major infrastructure improvement projects. The first is the $15-million installation at the relocated Law School of two to three 1,000-ton chillers and three to four 100,000 pound-per-hour natural gas fired boilers to provide steam and chilled water. The project was designed by Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects of Memphis. Construction will begin in summer of 2007 with completion slated for spring of 2008.

Florida Atlantic University (FAU) is planning to construct the $400 million Charles E. Schmidt Medical Center on 38 acres of its Boca Raton campus. The new academic medical center will be created as a partnership between FAU, the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and Boca Raton Community Hospital.

Yale University is developing the West Campus, an interdisciplinary research hub for disciplines including biology, chemistry, environmental science, and physics. Located on 136 acres in West Haven, Conn., the site was previously owned by Bayer and includes 17 buildings comprising 1.5 million-sf with 550,000-sf of biology and chemistry research laboratories. Renovations to the facilities will continue through summer of 2008 when initial occupancy will begin.

The University of California San Francisco Medical Center has selected architectural firm Anshen + Allen to design its $1.3-billion Mission Bay hospital complex. The first phase of the project is slated to begin construction in 2011 and reach completion in 2014. The project will include a 70-bed cancer center, a 289-bed acute care facility, a 183-bed children’s hospital, and a 36-bed women’s facility.

Medical College of Georgia Hospitals and Clinics will spend $163 million in the next three years on capital improvements. The projects include a $23 million Comprehensive Cancer Center; an $8.3 million expansion of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence including ten universal ICU beds; $20.6 million in cardiovascular services improvements; $10.3 million in imaging equipment; a $7.8 million renovation of obstetric and gynecological facilities; $6.5 million in image storage and retrieval technology; and a $3.6 million linear accelerator for radiation therapy.

Monmouth College is planning a $40 million research and teaching complex on its Monmouth, Ill., campus. The 140,000-sf facility will house the departments of science, mathematics, and business in a collaborative environment with a special focus on agriculture. The academic complex, housing laboratories and classrooms, will innovatively combine science and business studies to facilitate interdisciplinary research.

Iowa State University (ISU) began construction in late 2006 on the first phase of a $51-million renovation of its Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory and Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The project includes renovations to the existing 100,000-sf facility and a 55,000-sf addition housing an advanced imaging facility with improved biocontainment capabilities. The second project phase entails renovations of a vacant small animal facility to enable future expansion. Both phases are expected to reach completion in late 2009.

George Mason University (GMU) has opened the 98,974-sf Research I facility in Fairfax, Va. The $21.7-million facility features an astronomical observatory tower and telescope dome, faculty offices, laboratories, and research facilities for the College of Science, including the Center for Earth Observing and Space Research, the Center for Quantum Studies, and the Center for History and New Media. The project began construction in 2003 and opened for classes in fall of 2006. 

The University of Kansas Medical Center celebrated the opening of the 205,000-sf Life Sciences Innovation Center in Kansas City in December of 2006. The five-story, $57.2-million facility was designed by Cannon Design of Grand Island, N.Y., and GLPM Architects of Lawrence, Kansas, to accommodate collaborative research in neuroscience, reproductive biology, and proteomics. The facility houses laboratories, conference rooms, and shared equipment areas to encourage team research.

Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., is planning a multi-building expansion of its School of Medicine comprising up to five buildings over the next fifteen years. The first $86-million facility, the Learning and Knowledge Center, is being designed by NBBJ of San Francisco. The 120,000-sf facility will connect the medical school with Stanford’s main campus and will house a biomedical library, classrooms, and hospital simulation rooms. Groundbreaking is slated for 2008.