Higher Education

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center has topped out its new $221.9-million George and Cynthia Mitchell Basic Sciences Research Building. Slated for completion and initial occupancy in November, the 18-story, 500,000-sf facility is expected to be fully operational in June 2004. Located in Houston's Texas Medical Center, the building will house six floors of research laboratories, an auditorium, conference facilities, small-animal vivariums, and classrooms for the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.

The Dallas Independent School District has selected Dallas-based HKS Inc. to design a $30-million stadium and field house in southern Dallas. HKS has been awarded more than $76-million in projects with three Dallas-Fort Worth area school districts, and is negotiating for projects with the Garland and Birdville independent school districts.

Miramar College in San Diego is building the $2-million, 10,000-sf Advanced Transportation Technology Center. Housing two general purpose classrooms, seven interior auto bays, five faculty offices, three storage rooms, and over 10,000-sf of exterior work space, the facility will contain millions of dollars of tools and equipment supplied by Toyota Motor Sales USA. Miramar College is also working with Kvaas Constructors to build the $7.2-million, 41,850-sf Science and Technology Center in Mira Mesa.

Piedmont Triad Research Park at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem is slated to become a growing biotech incubator. Expanding the 10-acre park into a 180-acre biotech complex, the development will extend North Carolina's biotechnology corridor to the western portion of the state. The Piedmont incubator is being designed by Sasaki Associates, a firm based in Watertown, Mass., with an additional office in San Francisco. 

The University of California San Diego (UCSD) began construction on the $100-million Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center located on the school's east campus in La Jolla. Slated for completion in 2004, the 270,000-sf facility will be one of 40 buildings in the nation designated by the National Cancer Institute as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. Consolidating people and programs currently dispersed in various campus buildings, the center will house over 300 scientists, physicians and staff engaged in clinical, research, education, and outreach operations.

Montclair State University has selected  The S/L/A/M Collaborative of Glastonbury, Conn., to design a new, 6-8 floor academic building. The 190,000-nsf (271,428 gsf) structure will house 52 classrooms of various sizes as well as The College of Education and Human Services; The Office of Information Technology; and a 31,000-sf Conference Center. Completion of the $54,285,600 project is anticipated in February 2005.

The Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial is slated for construction in Washington. The $100-million project, managed by Concord Partners of Washington, will include a 50,000-sf addition to the 30,000-sf National Bank of Washington building purchased two years ago for the museum by the Armenian Assembly of America.

The University of North Carolina School of Medicine is nearing completion of the $23.5-million Bioinformatics Building in Chapel Hill. The 152,000-sf project was designed by Brown Jurkowski Architectural Collaborative PA. Contractor for the project is Clancy & Theys. The engineering team includes GKC Associates (structural); Newcomb & Boyd (mechanical, electrical, fire protection, audio/visual); Diehl & Phillips (civil); and Donna D.

The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio is broke ground in December on a new $20-million research facility in Edinburg, one of three new facilities being constructed as part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC). Sited on 12 acres adjacent to the University of Texas Pan American campus, the Edinburg facility will house RAHC's medical research division.

The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) is planning the Mission Bay Cancer Research Center. The research facility, expected to reach completion in 2006, will cost over $100-million. UCSF plans to develop a total of 2.65 million sf of biomedical laboratory and instructional space at its Mission Bay campus, for a construction cost of more than $2-billion.

The University of California, San Francisco has completed the 434,000-sf Genentech Hall on its Mission Bay Campus. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership served as design consultant to SmithGroup for the facility, which is the first to be constructed on the new 43-acre campus in San Francisco. Genentech Hall encompasses chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology and computational laboratories, laboratory support, offices, conference facilities, an auditorium, and a cafeteria.

Northwestern University recently opened the 40,000-sf Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly in Evanston, Ill. The facility encompasses wet chemistry and complementing laboratories, shared microscope and laser facilities, offices, a seminar room, and other support spaces. The facility is the first federally and privately funded nanotechnology center in the country and will provide a scientific basis for technological advances in the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases and in monitoring the environmental factors that can cause illness.

Drexel University will partner with Swarthmore-based e4n-6 Corp., a computer forensics lab, and El Segundo, Calif.-base Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit defense research firm, to create the Institute for Advanced Forensic Engineering. Aerospace Corp. will provide access to its $140-million worth of computers and communications technologies, accommodating the Institute's research into advanced cyber- and physical forensics.

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in La Jolla has launched the construction of the new Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center, a 270,000-sf facility that will unite the Cancer Center's clinical, research, education, and outreach activities under one roof. Completion of the building, designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership of Los Angeles, is scheduled for 2004. The Cancer Center is one of only 40 in the United States to hold a National Cancer Institute designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The University of Alabama has awarded Holliston-based Wayne J. Griffin Electric the contract to perform all electrical, lighting, HVAC and safety services for renovations and a two-story addition at the new student recreation center in Tuscaloosa. Totalling 180,000 sf, the three-phase project will double the size of the existing facility, construct the addition and add a new gymnasium featuring four full basketball courts.