Higher Education

The Foisie Innovation Studio & Messenger Residence Hall at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts supports a project-based curriculum and inspires new generations of students by merging three facility types in one building: interdepartmental maker/innovation space, high-tech active learning classrooms, and a 140-bed residence hall. The $50-million building, slated for completion in Augustn 2018, is designed for use by students from all academic disciplines. It offers a multidisciplinary environment to facilitate hands-on learning; collaboration between faculty, students, and external partners; and opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Texas A&M University will begin construction in summer of 2018 on the 21st Century Classroom Building in College Station. Designed by Perkins+Will in collaboration with Bora Architects, the $85 million academic facility will provide more than 2,200 classroom seats across 10 classrooms ranging from 72 to 630 seats.

North Dakota State University is engaged in a $28 million renovation and expansion of its health professions building in Fargo. The project includes construction of a six-story, 74,000-sf addition to Sudro Hall to provide collaborative learning environments for team-based healthcare education, and renovation of spaces in the existing building. Collocating all the school's health programs in a single location, the completed facility will include new and renovated laboratories for teaching, research, and clinical skills development.

16 Tech Community Corporation will break ground in fall of 2018 on the $30 million Advanced Research and Innovation Facility in Indianapolis. The Indiana Biosciences Research Institute will lease space in the five-story, 120,000-sf building, which represents the first phase of construction in the 16 Tech Innovation District. The 60-acre development will include a second office and research building, a 250-unit apartment complex, and renovated warehouse facilities.

Elizabethtown College is building the $24 million Bowers Center for Sports, Fitness and Well-being. Designed by CannonDesign, the 82,000-sf facility will include three recreation courts, an indoor track, a field house with tennis courts, locker rooms, a demonstration kitchen, a café, a collaboration lounge, and areas for yoga, weight training, and group fitness. Illuminated by abundant natural light, the center will provide space for individual and group counseling, educational workshops, and peer education activities.

High Point University is building the $65 million Wanek School of Undergraduate Sciences in High Point, N.C. Accommodating the departments of biology, chemistry, and physics, the four-story, 128,000-sf facility will provide advanced classrooms and labs to support STEM programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Astronomy courses will be enhanced by the new 6,000-sf Culp Planetarium, a 125-seat facility offering a 50-foot dome with sophisticated audiovisual technologies. An adjoining conservatory will also be constructed.

After nearly a decade of gathering data about what makes a STEM facility competitive and attractive to students and faculty, EYP Architecture & Engineering has distilled five features that are key to radically redesigning successful STEM facilities. Survey results obtained from more than 1,500 students and 330 faculty members at six universities reveal the characteristics in a facility’s design that help make the institution more competitive, enhance the effectiveness of science and engineering teaching, advance faculty and student research, increase the students’ interest in the STEM disciplines, and promote welcoming places to learn, study, and interact.

Construction will begin in late 2018 on the £20 million Maritime Knowledge Hub in Birkenhead in the United Kingdom. Located in the Wirral Waters redevelopment, the collaborative maritime education and research facility is being created by a partnership of Liverpool John Moores University, Peel Land and Property, Mersey Maritime, and Wirral Council.

WVU Medicine broke ground in June of 2018 on a women's and children's tower in Morgantown, W.V. Located at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, the $152 million facility will feature a 61-bed neonatal ICU, a 25-bed pediatric ICU, a 39-bed pediatric acute care unit, a 30-bed labor and delivery unit, and a medical office building housing subspecialty clinics. Designed by IKM, the eight-story tower will offer private patient rooms (with 11 NICU rooms for twins) as well as a pharmacy, a laboratory, an imaging suite, and operating rooms.

The University of Houston is building a new campus in Katy, Texas. Ground was broken in May of 2018 on the $32 million University Center, which will support programs in nursing, engineering, business, education, computer science, mathematics, psychology, and political science. Designed by SmithGroupJJR, the 80,000-sf project will also support online instructional programs. The general contractor is Tellepsen and completion is expected by fall of 2019. 

Rowan University and Rutgers University-Camden are building the Joint Health Sciences Center in Camden, N.J. Designed by HOK, the $70 million project comprises two joined buildings offering classrooms, laboratories, offices, and research space. Camden County College will also utilize the four-story, 95,000-sf complex, which will include a 30,000-sf simulation training center for Rowan’s School of Osteopathic Medicine and CCC’s allied health program.

Eastern Washington University broke ground in June of 2018 on the 101,352-sf Interdisciplinary Science Center in Cheney. The four-story project will provide a 100-seat classroom, teaching labs, study areas, offices, and support spaces for the departments of biology, chemistry, geology, and physics. A minimum of LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility, which will be physically connected to the existing science building by enclosed walkways.

Harvard University's Center for Climate Health and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE) has created the Healthy Buildings Program to study the effects of the built environment on health, productivity, and wellbeing. The nine foundations of a healthy building can optimize occupant health, preferably in a smoke-free environment with active design to promote movement.

Cardiff University will begin construction in September of 2018 on the £50 million Innovation Central facility in Wales in the United Kingdom. Designed by Hawkins\Brown to promote collaboration between academic and industry partners, the 129,167-sf project will include the SPARK social science research hub and a business incubator with shared spaces, labs, and serviced offices.

The SPARK Academic Innovation Hub at Washington State University was designed to serve as a campus-wide resource, increase transparency on campus, and promote cross-field collaboration, enhanced by a combination of high-tech digital classrooms and informal spaces. The building creates a gateway to the southern edge of the campus, with its network of flexible, technology-enabled learning environments connected to a central commons, which serves as a public presentation and event space.