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Miami University and The Pennsylvania State University have transformed outdated buildings into modern STEM teaching and research centers while maintaining some of each building’s historic aspects. The projects aim to replace siloed labs, dark corridors, and dated HVAC systems with collaborative research facilities and up-to-date mechanicals, recapturing wasted space to provide areas where students can gather. Swing space for affected occupants was crucial—Miami University’s Pearson Hall remained partially occupied during construction, while Penn State’s Steidle Building was vacated—as was clear and frequent communication with faculty and other building users. Both projects required fairly complex phasing.

A focused and comprehensive programming process was the cornerstone of planning for a new 380,000-sf, seven-story research building at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada. The building is part of CAMH’s multi-year, multi-phase redevelopment project, which includes construction of new inpatient and outpatient facilities, an emergency department, administrative facilities, and a new research building.

Roads filled with driverless cars, ethical decisions left up to smart machines, and robots that help paralyzed patients walk again sound like elements of a best-selling sci-fi thriller, but these are just a few of the research projects planned at the University of Michigan’s new Ford Motor Company Robotics Building. Scheduled to open in early 2020 at the school’s main campus in Ann Arbor, it is the university’s first public-private facility partnership. The collaboration offers insight into facility planning and industry partnership models that are emerging to support artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics innovation, recruit top talent, and prepare new graduates with the skills needed to thrive in this burgeoning industry.

Using the Lean continuous improvement process to increase efficiency and productivity is seen frequently in the manufacturing and automotive sectors, but less often in animal research facilities. Those who have used Lean to overhaul animal facilities say there is a lack of understanding in the industry about how this methodology can drastically boost efficiency, lower operating costs, decrease waste, improve sustainability, enhance program flexibility, increase capacity, and lower space requirements.

Universities have always been magnets for scholarship, but they increasingly act as magnets for economic development and community-building, as well. This trend has enormous implications for the future of learning, work, and real estate, as academic anchors look to leverage their ideas and the neighborhoods around them to generate entirely new industries and communities. The resulting developments, anchored by deep and diverse talent pools, in turn attract employers who are eager to collocate with universities to tap their resident brainpower.