Higher Education

The Mount Sinai School of Medicine has selected Tsoi/Kobus & Associates to assist in redesigning its medical education facilities within an existing tower. The new facilities will consolidate approximately 120,000 sf of existing teaching, library, and administrative space, using centralized information technology and media services. The Morchand Center for Clinical Competence will be expanded, and a new Minimally Invasive Surgery Education Center will be established.

The University of Notre Dame has chosen The S/L/A/M Collaborative to design a new 200,000-sf undergraduate science teaching building. The project is the implementation of the first phase of the College of Science master plan and will provide state-of-the-art teaching labs and support space for the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, and Physics. Research Facilities Design is the laboratory building design consultant.

Central College's Vermeer Science Center renovation and addition design has been completed by Holabird & Root. The Center will house classroom, laboratory, and office space for the disciplines of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Pre-Engineering, Environmental Studies, Mathematics, and Computer Science. A new greenhouse, museum display areas, and a special collections science library and reading room are also new spaces. The Center includes a 40,000-gsf wrap-around expansion to the 30,000-gsf existing facility.

Drexel University has expansion plans -- a new $30 million, 150,000-sf research facility, and, at the LeBow College of Business, a new $8 million, 40,000-sf structure. Over the last four years, the university has also built two residence halls -- the $22 million, 171,000-sf North Hall, and the $15 million, 109,000-sf East Hall

The State University of New York at New Paltz is expanding its residential accommodations for students. The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York awarded STV Architects of Douglassville, Pa., two contracts for the first newly designed and constructed housing to be built at the campus in 30 years. The first of these dormitories is currently in construction and STV will design a new 200+ bed residence hall to sit adjacent to it on the same site. The 62,000-sf, four-story facility is designed with three-person units, with two rooms in each unit.

McGill University Health Centre has selected Boston-based Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott (SBRA) architects working with Kurt Salmon Associates Health Care (Atlanta, Ga.) and Montreal architect Jodoin Lamarre et Pratte to complete a Strategic, Master and Functional Programming initiative to move five merged (1997) hospitals into one integrated healthcare campus, creating one of the largest hospital consolidations in North America.

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania is expanding its science programs and needs additional research labs and technological upgrades. The Pennsylvania Department of General Services has contracted STV Architects of Douglassville, Pa., to design the new Kutztown University Science Center. The $14-million center will encompass the departments of biology, chemistry, marine science, physics, geography, geology, physical science, and astronomy.

North Carolina Central University in Durham will receive approximately $118 million from a recent bond issue. Of that amount, about $50 million will go toward new construction, with the balance used for renovation of existing buildings. One project will renovate five buildings at a cost of $2.5 million per building. The upgrade will include replacement of all HVAC systems as well as installation of direct digital controls.

The University of California, Davis is nearing completion of its new $54.5 million Center for the Arts. The 106,370-sf facility will include a multilevel hall to seat up to 1,800; attic area and catwalks; entrance canopy; lobby; and an attached 250-seat studio theater.

McCormick Theological Seminary has recently completed renovations to two buildings that provide graduate student housing. Knight Advanced Technology of Chicago provided architectural, mechanical, electrical design, and construction administration services for the project--a seven-story, 38,000-sf apartment tower built in the late 1960s, and a four-story, 22,000-sf apartment building built in the late 1920s.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's new medical research building, designed by Lord Aeck & Sargent of Atlanta, will have a nontraditional design, placing desks near windows to take advantage of natural light, and using interior walls for utilities. Newcomb & Boyd of Atlanta is providing mechanical and electrical engineering for the new structure, ensuring ready access to the utilities in the building.

The University of California, San Francisco’s new 43-acre research campus at Mission Bay is under construction. Phase one includes a 385,000-sf research building; a 165,000-sf center for human genetics, developmental biology, and developmental neuroscience; and a campus community center sporting food courts, a health club and pool, and a library—all scheduled to open by 2003. The developer of the huge project is Catellus.

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.