Industry News

St. Mary's College will dedicate its new state-of-the-art, $25 million J.C. Gatehouse science center in early October. Special features of the 57,000-sf facility, designed by Ratcliff Associates of Emeryville, Calif., include the latest audio visual technology, with students at their workstations using laptops provided by the school; and research labs adjacent to the classrooms to foster student/professor interaction.

University of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio has broken ground on the first of three planned Regional Academic Health Centers. The Medical Education division of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Regional Academic Health Center is scheduled for completion by mid-2002. The Health Science Center will operate the new division.

Loras College has plans for a new 85,000-sf Academic Resource Center. The four-story facility will house the library, a tutorial center for writing and math, a learning disabilities center, reading rooms, coffee shop and a Barnes & Noble book store. A 3,000-sf exhibition space will be open to the public and features a rare books collection and a display of Dubuque history and archives. Data ports will be installed throughout the entire center for laptop users.

Boston University (BU) has expanded its on-campus housing with apartment-style suites that will accommodate 800 students. The new building is the first at the university's Student Village complex, which is located on 10 acres at the former Commonwealth Armory site. BU provides campus housing for over 10,000 students.

U.S. Department of Interior's Fish & Wildlife Service has retained HarleyEllis of Southfield, Mich., to provide architectural and engineering design services for the Clark R. Bavin National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory expansion in Ashland. The 48,000-sf project encompasses the analysis and renovation of 23,000-sf of existing facility and the design of 25,000 sf of expansion. The expanded facility will house forensics labs, a firing range, administration, and conference space.