Higher Education

Newcastle University broke ground in September of 2018 on the £39 million Teaching and Learning Building in the United Kingdom. Accommodating programs in sports and exercise science, human nutrition, psychology, and medical education, the six-story, 97,000-sf interdisciplinary facility will feature a 300-seat lecture hall, social learning spaces, seminar rooms, clinical suites, collaboration areas, and academic and postgraduate offices. The project team includes GSS Architecture and Clugston Construction.

Rutgers University opened the $115 million Chemistry and Chemical Biology Building in September of 2018 in Piscataway, N.J. Designed by Flad Architects to promote multidisciplinary collaboration, the four-story, 144,000-sf facility offers core facilities including a microscopy suite, a Class 100 chemistry cleanroom, and labs for optical spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography.

The University of Toronto spent $153 million (USD) to rehabilitate 47 percent of its total research space, a move that is favored by the Canadian government as a viable alternative to building new facilities. It is estimated that constructing new buildings to replace this amount of the university’s aging research facilities would have cost approximately $494 million.

The Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine opened in Meridian in September 2018. Created in partnership with Idaho State University, the three-story, 94,000-sf facility features a technology-rich clinical simulation center, a 3,500-sf medical library, and a 3,479-sf Osteopathic Manipulation Medicine (OMM) lab. The building also provides two 250-seat lecture halls and 12 Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) rooms.

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point opened the $75 million Chemistry Biology Building in September of 2018. The four-story, 176,500-sf facility was designed by HOK and Potter Lawson to put science on display and provides 58 research and teaching labs. The building offers flexible instructional spaces for STEM programs including two 98-seat lecture halls, three 48-seat classrooms, and two 24-seat classrooms.

Northern Kentucky University opened the $105 million Health Innovation Center in Highland Heights in September of 2018. Designed by CO Architects and GBBN Architects, the 108,179-sf interdisciplinary facility provides the College of Health Professions with advanced classrooms, laboratories, and offices. The building houses the College of Health Professions, the Institute for Health Innovation, the Institute for Student Research and Creative Activity, and the two-story St. Elizabeth Simulation Center.

The University of California, Irvine broke ground in September of 2018 on the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building. Designed by LMN Architects to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration, the six-story, 204,750-sf facility will house the Samueli School of Engineering, the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Science, and the School of Physical Sciences.

At the University of Minnesota, a renovation/construction project to add science space required detailed integration with the campus district plan, as well as preservation of historic features. The result was enhanced physical connectivity on campus, a careful blending of older and new construction, and improved energy performance. Tate Hall is one of 260 structures on the main Twin Cities campus, which is so large that planners have divided it into districts for planning purposes. The urban campus straddles the Mississippi River, and Tate, a horseshoe-shaped building first constructed in 1926, sat largely empty, as most of the physics department had recently moved to a new research building.

Pennsylvania State University is planning a $17.3 million renovation and expansion of Pattee Library in University Park. The project includes the infill of an existing courtyard to provide a two-story enclosed atrium with a connecting stair, with administrative offices for the Library Learning Services and three Digital Scholarship and Data Services units located on upper floors.

Oregon Health & Science University opened the $190 Knight Cancer Institute in September of 2018 on the South Waterfront Campus in Portland. Designed by SRG Partnership to foster multidisciplinary collaboration, the seven-story, 320,000-sf facility provides biomedical laboratories, administrative offices, interaction hubs, core labs, a 200-seat auditorium, and space for clinical trials. Featuring an integrated balance of wet and dry research spaces, the building accommodates programs in computational biology, early cancer detection, and immuno-oncology.

Chapman University opened the $130 million Keck Center for Science and Engineering in late August of 2018 in Orange, Calif. Housing the Schmid College of Science and Technology, the three-story, 140,000-sf facility accommodates programs in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, math, computational science, food science, psychology, and health science. Spacious teaching and research spaces are grouped strategically by discipline, with students and faculty moving seamlessly between classroom and lab. Designed by AC Martin and built by C.W.

Ohio University broke ground in late August of 2018 on a $42.6 million chemistry building in Athens. Designed by BHDP Architecture and Flad Architects to put science on display, the 69,000-sf facility will provide labs for teaching and research, collaboration spaces, conference rooms, a shared instrumentation suite, and offices for faculty and graduate students. Gilbane Building Company is the construction manager for the project, which is slated for completion in summer of 2020.

Innovation hubs and incubators are emerging as the best solution to help universities, entrepreneurs, researchers, and students transform their creative ideas into viable commercial ventures. Users want facilities that focus on entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation; foster interdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships; offer responsive and flexible spaces; create a spirit of ground-up innovation; support commercialization of ideas/products; and connect to nearby universities, companies, and amenities.

The Physical Sciences Building (PSB) is a new research laboratory for the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The 95,000-gsf facility supports scientific discovery in the fields of materials science, condensed matter and nuclear physics, and organic and inorganic chemistry. It contains state-of-the-art high bay physics research labs, synthetic chemistry research labs, extensive core support labs, offices, student work areas, and collaboration space. Housing 20 faculty-led research groups with a total of 130 bench positions, the PSB is a pivotal part of the school’s Comprehensive Science and Engineering Master Plan.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham opened the School of Nursing in September of 2018. Designed by Payette in collaboration with Williams Blackstock Architects, the $32 million project included renovation of an existing structure and construction of a 72,000-sf addition to provide leading-edge classrooms, research labs, offices, and collaboration spaces. The Nursing Competency Suite accommodates simulation training and testing activities, and the Innovation Collaboratory offers interactive workstations for group learning and discovery.