Industry News

Drew University commissioned Philadelphia-based A/E firm, Ewing Cole Cherry Brott to provide programming and schematic design services for the renovation and expansion of Seminary Hall, built in 1898. The building is the focal point of the Theological School. By renovating the existing structure and constructing a new addition, the new building program totaling 34,000 sf will include provisions for accessibility throughout the building, a large chapel space, seminar rooms, additional classrooms, preaching space, faculty offices, study/commuter lounge, and commons area.

The University of Pennsylvania has selected construction management firm R.M. Shoemaker Co. of West Conshohocken, Pa., to build Steinhardt Hall, the new Hillel Jewish Student Life Center on the campus of the University. Groundbreaking was scheduled for October 2001. The three-story, 35,000-sf facility will provide a new academic, cultural, and religious complex for the more than 6,000 Jewish students at the University. It will contain a kosher kitchen and 386-seat kosher dining room, a 320-seat auditorium, and a 174-seat Beit Midrash.

Catholic University of America has begun construction on the Edward J. Przybyla University Center—a $25.6-million, 102,000-sf facility housing a 1,000-seat ballroom, an atrium lounge, six meeting rooms, campus bookstore and information center, food court, and outdoor campus commons. Completion is anticipated in 2003. The general contractor is Clark Construction. The civil engineer is Dulles-based Alpha Corp.

 Ave Maria College's new 328,000-sf campus will be located within the Domino's Farms office complex in Ann Arbor. HarleyEllis of Detroit has completed schematic design for the campus, which will include a 176,000-sf, five-story Academic Building with classrooms, labs, exercise facilities, offices, and library; a 9,000-sf chapel; a 22,000-sf commons building; and 121,000-sf for student housing--four buildings that will accommodate 295 students.

 Harvard Medical School broke ground in February 2001 on a new $250 million collaborative biomedical research facility designed by Architectural Resources Cambridge.  The 430,000-gsf facility will be shared by Harvard Medical School basic science departments and collaborative tenants from Harvard’s affiliate institutions. To enhance interdisciplinary research, the facility has been designed with faculty members doing related work in adjacent labs and sharing core facilities.