Higher Education

The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) celebrated the beginning of its $15.2-million Life Science Building renovation on January 26, 2006. When it opens in fall of 2007, the 76,740-gsf facility will house space for the College of Pharmacy, Duluth on the first and second floors. Dubbed the Paddock Laboratories Pharmacy Education Center, it will consist of five classrooms, two large labs, study space, computer labs, and a student lounge.

Cornell University is planning to construct the $50-million William H. Gates Hall on its campus in Ithaca, N.Y. Funded in part by a $25-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the facility will accommodate education in computing and information science with a lecture hall, conference rooms, classrooms, laboratories, faculty offices, and student project spaces.

Westminster College is planning to construct a $30-million, 60,000-sf Science Center on its Salt Lake City campus. The three-story facility will house 14 undergraduate research labs, 14 regular labs, 2 seminar classrooms, 2 general classrooms, 1 informatics lab, faculty offices, and greenhouse spaces. Employing technologies including wireless computing, image capturing microscopes, modeling and miniaturization capabilities, and NMR capability, the building will be designed with flexible, open labs to foster interaction and enable reconfiguration.

The University of Kansas will begin construction in spring 2006 on a 45,000-sf expansion of the Structural Biology Center on its Lawrence campus. Enabling the center to house one of the nation's most extensive collections of pharmaceutical compounds (specifically those intended to treat cancer), the $20-million addition will also contain laboratories, offices, and conference rooms. As the third and final phase of the center, the project is expected to reach completion in mid-2007.

Yale University is planning to construct a new Biology Department laboratory facility on its New Haven, Conn., campus. Slated for completion within two years, the facility will connect to the existing Bass Building and will have four floors, each shared by seven different research entities. Designed to foster interaction and collaboration, the new biology building will unite all of the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology research groups.

The University of California, Riverside is planning to construct a $65.5-million interdisciplinary science building to house programs in nanotechnology, materials science, and bioengineering. If approved by the University of California, the 134,000-sf facility will be comprised of two wings connected by a lobby. The four-story east wing will house lecture halls, computer labs, offices, and six classrooms, two of which can accommodate 300 people. The three-story west wing will house research laboratories.

Brandeis University will break ground in spring 2006 on the $154-million Carl J. Shapiro Science Center on its Waltham, Mass., campus. Designed by Payette Associates of Boston, the 175,000-sf project is the largest capital initiative in the University's history. The building will feature interdisciplinary research labs, a science commons, classrooms, seminar rooms, conference rooms, and a cafe.

The California Academy of Sciences is working with architect Renzo Piano to design a LEED ™ platinum facility in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

Case Western Reserve University celebrated the opening of its new laboratory facility in Cleveland, Ohio, in fall of 2005. Designed by The Stubbins Associates and its affiliate Kling, the 18,755-sf facility is sited on the University's new 140-acre West Quad and will serve as the headquarters for both the Cleveland Center for Structural Biology and the Wright Fuel Cell Group.

The University of North Carolina is constructing a $35-million, 100,000-gsf facility to house its Bioinformatics Program at the Charlotte Research Institute campus. Intended to foster commercial biomedical and biotechnological partnerships, the building will house wet and dry labs and space for research and instruction.

North Carolina Central University (NCCU) will initiate construction in April 2006 on the Biomanufacturing Research Institute & Technology Enterprise Center on its Durham campus. Slated to open in 2007, the 65,000-sf facility will house research laboratories for biotechnology and biomanufacturing, lab support, classrooms, and an auditorium. The building will be sited adjacent to NCCU's new $36-million science complex.

Georgia State University will construct a new $105-million science and laboratory facility in downtown Atlanta. The University is working with Atlanta-based engineering and architectural group Heery International on the project. 

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is adding approximately 750,000 sf of biomedical research space and outpatient care in a new complex named the Red and Charline McCombs Institute for the Early Detection and Treatment of Cancer.

UAlbany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering is planning to construct the $435-million Institute for Nanoelectronic Discovery and Exploration. The project includes a new 250,000-sf facility with a 100,000-sf cleanroom to be built at the Albany Center for Excellence. The institute is being co-created by the Semiconductor Industry Association and the Semiconductor Research Corp. A second institute will be located in California's Silicon Valley.

The University of Missouri-Columbia is constructing the $16.3-million Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. The project includes renovation of the 29,103-sf Sociology building and the 18,030-sf Walter William hall and construction of a four-story building connecting the two facilities. The institute will house classrooms, laboratory space, a TV studio, and editing workstations. The project contractors are Kozeny-Wagner of St. Louis and Jefferson City, Mo.-based Sircal Contracting.