Higher Education

The University of Victoria opened its new $25-million Engineering/Computer Science building in British Columbia in fall of 2006. Designed for sustainability with extensive use of natural light, the six-story, 8,975-square meter facility houses classrooms, teaching labs, lecture halls, and offices. The building features a dual plumbing system that utilizes recycled water from the aquatics facility, low-flush toilets and faucets, waterless urinals, and an HVAC heat recovery system that uses the same water for heating and cooling.

Columbia University Medical Center in New York has received an award from the National Institutes of Health of $54 million over five years to establish the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Columbia is one of twelve academic medical centers in the U.S. to receive this Clinical and Translational Science Award. This funding will support construction that will enable Columbia to expand dedicated clinical/translational research space by 40 percent to a total of 35,000 sf.

Cuyamaca College is constructing a $25-million science and technology facility at its campus in El Cajon, Calif. Slated for completion in January 2007, the two-story, 58,668-sf facility will house ten classrooms, nine physical and life sciences laboratories, computer laboratories, and art laboratories. The construction manager for the project is Gafcon, Inc.

Construction is nearly complete for Grossmont Community College's new $19.7-million, 37,834-square-foot science building in El Cajon, Calif. The two-story facility will house laboratories for biology, chemistry, geology, and oceanography programs. The building will also accommodate faculty offices, a 40-station computer learning center, a greenhouse, and a walled native garden area. The facility completes the science and technology quadrangle, a square of four buildings on the campus that abuts a large open space.

Santiago Canyon College celebrated the grand opening of its 39,900-sf library in Orange, Calif., on September 27, 2006. Designed by LPA Architects of Irvine, Calif., the project features a two-story environmentally–friendly design with space to accommodate 100,000 books. The $15-million facility houses 13 group study rooms, a bibliographic instruction lab, a faculty resource center, audio-visual and information technology support services, and over 75 computer workstations.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine dedicated the 78,000-sf Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory on Oct. 2, 2006. The facility will test for animal diseases including chronic wasting disease, mad cow disease, and avian influenza. The building, which reached completion in September 2006 after two years of construction,  includes a self-contained 1,200-sf BSL-3 facility, an electron microscope installed on a floating floor, and a 4,000 pound capacity tissue digester.

The University of Alaska, Anchorage broke ground on the 120,000-sf Integrated Science Building on Sept. 22, 2006. Slated for completion in fall of 2009, the three-story building will house offices, lecture halls, and laboratory space for the departments of physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, geology, and biochemistry. The $87-million cost of the facility includes construction, furniture, and some equipment. Designed for flexibility, the building will encourage interaction among faculty and students engaged in undergraduate research.

DePaul University will begin construction on a second science facility at its Chicago campus on July 1, 2007. The $37.2 million Science II is slated for completion in November of 2008 with occupancy in winter quarter of 2009. The 130,000-sf, four-story facility will include a mechanical penthouse and a rooftop greenhouse. The project team is comprised of Antunovich Associates of Chicago as lead design architect and Earl Walls Associates of San Diego.

The University of Michigan has dedicated its new $220-million Biomedical Science Research Building in Ann Arbor, Mich. Gilbane Building Company and joint venture partner Clark Construction were construction managers for the 502,000-sf facility, a flexible, generic research space that will serve the needs of the Medical School. Gilbane's Midwest regional office oversaw the project.

Purdue University dedicated the 100,000-sf Richard and Patricia Lawson Computer Science Building on its West Lafayette, Ind., campus in September of 2006. The $20-million facility will accommodate interdisciplinary research between computer scientists and biologists, nurses, engineers, teachers, and business managers. Consolidating Purdue's computer science program from five buildings to two, the facility houses classrooms, teaching and research labs, meeting rooms, a 100-seat conference room, and a lecture hall.

The University of California, San Diego completed interior construction on the expansion of its $17-million Biomedical Library in late summer of 2006. Located on the La Jolla campus, the exterior construction was completed in May 2006. The project entailed the addition of 39,000 sf and the renovation of the attached structure, creating one contiguous space totaling 74,690 sf.

Johns Hopkins University Medical School broke ground in September 2006 on a $45-million, 100,000-sf academic facility. The four-story East Baltimore building will include a 360-seat lecture hall, classrooms, laboratories, offices, and study areas. The facility, which will feature digital microscopes and technologies, will be named for $20-million donor Michael Armstrong when it opens in 2009.

Muhlenberg College occupied its new sustainably-designed science building in Allentown, Pa., in September of 2006. The ground floor of the facility houses Introductory Biology; the first floor, Organismal Biology; and the second floor, Cell and Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, and Neuroscience.

The University of Utah opened the $14-million David M. Grant NMR Center on Sept. 8, 2006. The 24,000-sf facility began construction in summer of 2005 and will accommodate researchers in the disciplines of biology, medicine, chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, geology, physics, and materials science. The construction cost of the building was $7,567,700.

The University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) at Houston is constructing three new projects. The planned $62-million Biomedical Research and Education center will accommodate adult stem cell research and teaching with laboratories, support spaces, multipurpose conference rooms, and office space. The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston will replace its current six-story facility with a new building estimated to cost $9 million. Both projects will be located in the 100-acre UT Research Park jointly developed by UTHSC and the University of Texas M.D.