Industry News

St. Louis Community College recently completed the 59,000-sf South County Education and University Center. An extension of the Meramec campus, the facility will serve approximately 2,000 students. The technology-rich facility features three computer labs, 17 “smart” classrooms, two interactive TV rooms connecting to other colleges, and computer carts with radio cards for wireless Internet access. 19 telecommunications enclosures provide wireless Internet connection from nearly everywhere in the building. Ground was broken on the project in December 2001 by project contractor Fru-Con Corp.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis has opened the new $52-million Blanch M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. The 123,000-sf facility houses the 1,625 Anheuser Busch Performance Hall and the 300-seat E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Theatre. Designed by Pei-Cobb Freed & Partners with the acoustic firm of Kirkegaard Associates, the center accommodates dressing rooms, performer lounges, two box offices, and a 42 x 54 ft rehearsal room. The center, which has a $6-million operating budget, will be used by both the university and the performing arts community.

Webster University opened its new $21-million Emerson Library on July 1, 2003. The 71,500-sf, five-floor facility accommodates 750 data ports, 20 small-group study rooms, a 100-person lecture room, an electronic classroom, and a 25-computer cyber café. The facility is Webster's only U.S. library; all other Webster campuses can access the library's materials in computer labs. Contractor Paric Corp. broke ground on the project in 2001. The library was designed by architectural firm Perry, Dean, Rogers & Partners of Boston.  

Yale School of Medicine’s Biomedical Research and Teaching Facility, known as 300 Cedar Street, is designed to maximize collaboration between basic and clinical scientific disciplines. Designed by Payette Associates, the 450,000-gsf project was dedicated on the New Haven, Ct.,campus in May 2003. A six-story, 350,000-gsf wing supports flexible laboratories for 700 scientists focused on disease-related research. A four-story, 100,000-gsf wing supports medical education including the school’s new gross anatomy and histology teaching laboratories for medical and physician associate students.

Palo Alto Medical Foundation is planning the $23-million Clark Building, a 39,000-sf addition to the 300,000-sf medical clinic. Located adjacent to Stanford University, the space will house physician offices and the clinic’s sports medicine services. Plans are expected to be approved in October 2003. Funding for the building comes in part from a $5-million donation from the James H. Clark Charitable Foundation.