Latest Reports

Lorain County Community College’s new 53,000-gsf Laboratory Sciences Building houses facilities for the departments of biology, chemistry, and physics, with 24-person teaching labs and lab support rooms, a student commons, break-out space designed to serve as open study space, and a rooftop teaching greenhouse.

A total systems approach to space management is allowing the University of Michigan Medical School to make better-informed and more objective decisions in planning for growth within 4 million gsf of existing facilities in Ann Arbor, Mich. The space management system—which continues to evolve and expand since its deployment in 2008, and recently became a University best practice—increased annual space productivity by 4.18 percent and generates an estimated yearly savings of $300,000 through improved operational efficiencies.

Achieving the goal of near net-zero energy consumption in research facilities over the next decade and beyond will be more challenging than efforts that so far have resulted in a 40 percent energy reduction for many. Getting to 80 percent savings can put them in range, and the best way to tackle this final, achievable savings is by addressing energy and water consumption together using new technologies like more efficient lab equipment and better data center cooling systems, according to Steve Frei and Paul Erickson, principals at Affiliated Engineers, Inc.

In an era of shrinking research funding and growing reliance on complex technologies, a centralized core model resolves a host of issues faced by sizable institutions like University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto, Canada’s largest research hospital.

Major economic indicators point to healthy growth for the remainder of 2015. Non-residential construction spending has rebounded nearly 50 percent from its most recent bottom in 2011, with a total volume growth of 17 percent in 2014. Year-over-year growth is currently 21 percent. Though commodity and energy prices were lower in the first quarter of 2015, the construction sector is nearing full employment, which will drive significant wage increases regionally.