Higher Education

Los Angeles City College has selected The Steinberg Group to design its new $13.7-million Martin Luther King Library. Slated for completion in 2005, the 64,000-gsf facility will house the existing Learning Skills Center, the All Campus Computer Lab, and learning disabilities and classroom study areas. The library will serve as the new gateway to the campus with plazas to the south and east. It will be constructed on the site currently accommodating the men’s gymnasium.

The University of South Alabama has completed the first phase of its $9.3-million Research and Technology Park in Mobile, Ala. The project entailed construction of a 75,000-sf office facility for software and technology company Mentor Graphics Corp. The project team includes KPS Group of Birmingham as architect and Doster Construction Co. as construction manager.

The University of Kansas and Union Station are collaborating to develop a 2,000-sf fossil-preparation laboratory at the 68,000-sf Science City. The renovation will include expanded space for educational exhibits and is slated for completion by year-end 2004. University of Kansas paleontologists will work in the lab that will feature the fossils of a camarasaurus dinosaur.

Auburn University has awarded Brice Building Co. of Birmingham the $18 million contract to develop two new projects on its Auburn, Ala., campus. The historic Ross Hall will be renovated and expanded to accommodate the mechanical and chemical engineering departments. Brice will also manage construction of the new 50,000-sf Harrison School of Pharmacy, W.W. Walker building, and modifications to the existing structure. Completion of both projects is expected in late 2005.

The University of Hawaii at Hilo is developing the $5.7 million Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center (PACRC). The center will provide infrastructure for aquaculture, fisheries, and marine science activities on the Big Island. Upon completion in 2005, PACRC will have field sites at Keaukaha and Panaewa as well as offices at the UH-Hilo campus. The Keaukaha site will feature a water quality laboratory, hatcheries, offices, and a classroom. Quarantine facilities, freshwater ponds, and integrated aquaculture-agriculture farming systems will be developed at the Panaewa site.

Phillips Academy Andover has completed construction of the 58,000-sf Richard L. Gelb Science Center at its Andover, Mass., campus. Designed by Kallman, McKinnell & Wood Architects, the three-story facility houses 20 laboratories equipped with networked audiovisual systems and a conference room. Erland Construction was the project contractor.

Los Angeles Harbor College is planning two new campus structures: the 39,000-sf  Student Services Building and the 68,000-sf Northeast Academic Building. The facilities will be sited on the college’s Wilmington, Calif., campus and will be constructed to meet LEED Silver certification. The $8.5-million Student Services Building, scheduled for completion in summer 2005, will consolidate available campus services and administration offices into a one-stop center.

The city of Lafayette, Calif., is planning to construct the Glenn Seaborg Learning Consortium at the new Lafayette Library and Learning Center. Created by twelve Bay Area educational and cultural institutions, the project is comprised of a 25,000-sf library and an attached 1,700-sf community room. Slated to open in 2006, the project is the first of its kind in the nation in size and scope. The collaborating groups are the Lawrence Hall of Science, Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland Museum of California, Commonwealth Club of California, John Muir/Mt.

North Carolina Sate University is planning a 91,000-sf biomanufacturing test facility that will simulate a good-manufacturing-practices environment at its Raleigh campus. The $36-million facility, funded by a Golden Leaf grant, will provide workforce training for the biomanufacturing industry.

North Carolina State University may add as much as 240,000-sf of office space to its Centennial Campus in Raleigh. Plans describe the development of several additional office buildings on 5.7 acres of the 1,334-acre site. The Centennial Campus will foster collaboration by allowing faculty and graduate students to work side-by-side with corporate researchers. Four buildings are currently under construction on the campus.

The University of California, Berkeley will renovate the 54-year-old Bancroft Library to current seismic specifications as part of a $1 billion campuswide seismic retrofit project. The $20 million library renovation will provide additional space for classrooms, exhibits, reading, and storage, as well as creating ramps for disabled people. State-of-the-art climate control to protect aged manuscripts will be installed, and the computer network will be upgraded. The project is expected to begin in June 2005 and reach completion in eighteen months.

The Arthur and Gladys Pancoe-Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Life Sciences Pavilion (Pancoe-ENH), designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, officially opened November 14, 2003 at Northwestern University. Located on the Evanston campus, Pancoe-ENH will provide lab space for 24 to 32 principal investigators and their research groups working in the areas of molecular biology, genomics, cell biology, neurobiology, developmental biology and reproductive biology.

Rice University has selected Addison-based McCarthy to build its $1.5 million Nanofabrication Facility on the school’s Houston campus. The project is comprised of a 3,000-sf renovation and remodeling of existing space in Abercrombie Hall to create Class 100 and Class 1000 clean rooms and support. Occupancy is slated for March 2004.

Vista Community College will begin construction in spring of 2004 on a new $45.9 million building in Berkeley, Calif. The 165,000-sf facility will accommodate 5,400 students and is slated for completion in September of 2005.

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) has awarded McCarthy a $13.3 million contract to add 39,600-sf to the existing biomedical library and to renovate the attached biomedical library structure on the La Jolla campus. General contractor McCarthy will construct the library addition while the existing library remains operational. Upon completion of the addition, the new library area will open while the existing building will be vacated and renovated, with an end result of one contiguous 74,690-sf facility.