Massachusetts Institute of Technology plans to break ground in Cambridge on the $350-million McGovern Institute for Brain Research later in 2001. Other area institutions with similar facilities include McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., which will open a $10-million brain research wing, and the University of Massachusetts Medical Center's newly-opened $12-million Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute located at Worcester State Hospital in Worcester.
Meredith College has a new $20-million, 80,000-sf collaborative science building under construction. Designed by BJLAS Architecture and built by Rogers Builders of Charlotte, N.C., the facility will promote interaction by bringing together the various science subspecialties, rather than isolating them by floor. The most expensive lab space—that used by the departments of chemistry and biology—will be grouped together. Four to six students will work together at lab ‘islands’. Small group study alcoves will be located throughout the structure.
The National Museum of the American Indian will be entering the second phase of construction with completion estimated for 2004. A $140 million contract for foundation, structure, shell interior and landscaping will be awarded by the Smithsonian Institution, and construction is expected to begin in June 2001. Phase one included site preparation at the National Mall location, which cost approximately $4 million. The museum will house more than 800,000 artifacts.
The National Cathedral School began construction of a 99,000-sf underground athletic center in November 2000. The $17.5 million facility will be located underneath a soccer field and is expected to open in February of 2002. Working with the restriction that no more than 14 percent of the 57-acre National Cathedral site may be developed, the center will be accessed via a small stone pavilion containing a three-story atrium and a 40-foot freestanding climbing wall.
The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering will be housing incoming students this fall in modular classroom and dormitory buildings. Three of the four building intended to accommodate these students, totaling nearly 300,000 sf, are in the first phase of construction and are slated for completion in early 2002. The remaining building will be ready for occupancy in April 2002, with four additional buildings to be completed as needed to reach Olin's anticipated full enrollment of 600-650 students.
Sarah Lawrence College has selected Daedalus Projects Inc. of Boston as construction project manager for the new 65,000-sf Heinbold Visual Arts Center in Bronxville, N.Y.
Harvard Medical School has completed a phased renovation of facilities for the Department of Cell Biology. Architectural Resources Cambridge, based in Cambridge, Mass., planned the project which includes biological research labs and facilities for video microscopy, micro-injection, tissue culture, and histology, as well as a frog research facility and high purity water treatment system. A frog breeding colony is accommodated in a new skylighted penthouse.
A two-year, $75.7 million renovation of the National Archives Building is under way, with 90 percent estimated to reach completion by July 1, 2003. Grunley Construction of Rockville, Md., has been contracted to renovate 300,000 sf of public and office space, including the rotunda, staircase, roof, installation of an elevator, and construction of a $7 million privately funded 294-seat theater.
San Diego State University is planning to break ground on a new 14-megawatt energy cogeneration plant in conjunction with a campuswide conservation effort. Design of the $20 million facility will is scheduled to begin in May 2001 with construction beginning in summer. Expected to be online by summer of 2002, the plant is a long-term solution to rising energy costs. Replacing the existing 3-megawatt cogeneration plant that supplies only a third of the university's energy, the new plant will generate enough electricity for the entire campus.
Sonoma State University at Rohnert Park has completed construction of the Environmental Technology Center, a 2,230-sf student environmental science building. Built by the Sacramento, Calif. office of McCarthy, the facility will serve as a public demonstration project and features sustainable, state-of-the-art, energy efficient architecture and design. To reduce chemical agents and improve concrete density, an experimental concrete mix was used that contains high concentrations of industrial by-products fly ash and rice hull ash.
San Jose State University is collaborating with the city of San Jose to build the Martin Luther King Jr. Library. Located in downtown San Jose, the 475,000-sf, $177.5 million building will provide needed additional space for both the college and the city that neither could have funded independently. The city is providing $70 million of the cost of the eight-story building, with SJSU supplying $5 million. $86 million will come from a California State University system capital project fund.
University of Vermont College of Medicine and Fletcher Allen Health Care have broken ground on the Renaissance Project, a $173.4 million project uniting the two institutions in education, research, and patient care. The project includes construction of a new Education and Conference Center with a medical library, lecture hall, auditorium, classrooms, and study areas for small groups. The project will relocate outpatient specialty clinics from Fletcher Allen's University Health Campus to a new Ambulatory Care Center.
The University of Pennsylvania Riverview Campus master plan was recently completed by Cambridge-based Tsoi/Kobus & Associates. The 20-acre Philadelphia Civic Center site will be transformed into a mixed-use healthcare and research center serving the needs of the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania.
California Polytechnic University, Pomona is completing construction of the Engineering Laboratory Replacement Project phase two--a $20 million, two-story, 117,900-sf facility accommodating engineering labs, classrooms, and offices. Nielsen Dillingham Builders of San Diego is in charge of construction. Architect for the project is Leo A. Daly of Omaha, Neb. The civil engineer is Boyle Engineering of Newport Beach, Calif.
Emory University has three projects under construction targeted to meet LEEDTM standards: an interdisciplinary science building, Science 2000 Phase Two; the Winship Cancer Institute; and the Whitehead Biomedical Research Building. In the Winship building and the 325,000-sf Whitehead building, enthalpy heat wheel devices are expected to pay for themselves through reduced energy costs in five to seven years. Approximately $326,000 of the Winship building’s $60-million price tag is LEEDs related, a percentage expected to prevail in the other buildings.
