Collaboration

Responding to the call to reinvent university science instruction, Virginia Tech’s new classroom building is poised to create “a bona fide learning revolution.” Slated for completion in 2016, the 73,400-sf facility will offer flexible, innovative teaching spaces that are “radically different” from anything previously seen on the Blacksburg campus, according to Jill Sible, assistant provost for undergraduate education at the largest producer of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) degrees in the state.

Purdue University is initiating three construction projects for the College of Engineering in West Lafayette, Ind. Work will begin in 2016 on an $8.2 million expansion of the Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories to create a 9,600-sf research suite featuring five new test cells supporting laser-based measurement. Other projects include the $54 million, 75,000-sf Flex Lab, a multidisciplinary, team-based research facility, and the Innovation Design Center, a 24-hour student project building featuring CAD labs and collaboration areas.

IU Health, Indiana University, and IU Bloomington Hospital are partnering to create a new regional academic health center. Located adjacent to the IU Technology Park, the project includes construction of a replacement facility for IU Health Bloomington Hospital and an instructional building for the Indiana University School of Medicine. The regional academic health complex will promote collaboration between faculty, researchers, clinicians, medical staff, and students. Design work will begin in late spring of 2015.

Concordia College is planning to create an integrated science complex in Moorhead, Minn. Designed by EYP Architecture and Engineering and Foss Architecture, the $45 million project includes the complete renovation of two conjoined facilities totaling 108,000 sf and construction of a three-story, 58,000-sf atrium. The complex will support collaborative, discovery-based learning in mathematics and the sciences with neighborhoods of classrooms, laboratories, and offices interspersed with informal study and social spaces.

The University of Toledo’s Interprofessional Immersive Simulation Center is equipped with an i-Space™—the world’s first five-sided seamless LED virtual reality center for medical training, education, and research—and a virtual hospital outfitted with human patient simulators, state-of-the-art clinical equipment, and observation, control and debriefing rooms. The five-sided CAVE required a four-inch-thick glass floor weighing two tons.

SUNY Polytechnic Institute is partnering with the New York Power Authority to create the Advanced Grid Innovation Laboratory for Energy (AGILe) in Albany, N.Y. Supporting collaborative energy infrastructure research, the facility will enable the simulation, development, testing, and deployment of advanced electrical grid technologies.

To achieve the most viable, successful workspaces, companies need to look closely at the factors that most directly influence their work culture instead of following the latest design trends, according to Kay Sargent, director of workplace strategies at Lend Lease. No single workplace design fits every company, and a workspace should fit the people using it, as well as the organizational goals.

The University of Toledo’s Interprofessional Immersive Simulation Center (UT-IISC) represents a new technology-driven approach to educating tomorrow’s healthcare professionals. Utilizing state-of-the-art virtual reality environments, the UT-IISC provides interactive and experiential environments for training, education, and research. Giving students, researchers, and clinicians the unprecedented ability to “fly through” organs of the body and visualize them in highly detailed digital 3-D, the center was developed to improve patient safety as well as efficiencies in healthcare. 

George Washington University opened the $275 million Science and Engineering Hall in March of 2015 in Washington, D.C. Located on the Foggy Bottom campus, the 500,000-sf interdisciplinary facility provides classrooms, integrated core facilities, and collaborative research spaces. Designed by Ballinger, the facility houses laboratories for biomedical engineering, nanofabrication, molecular genetics, imaging, and environmental engineering. The three-story high bay lab will support structural testing for large-scale construction components.

Johns Hopkins University’s 105,000-sf Undergraduate Teaching Labs (UTL) replace outdated, dispersed facilities with a single building that increases collaboration across scientific disciplines and offers a new model for research and education. The visually stunning UTL collocates all teaching laboratories for the departments of biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and biophysics, with a shared instrument core. The facility also contains dedicated “project labs” that provide a platform for undergraduate students to participate in actual research.

Oregon State University will begin construction in March of 2015 on a $40 million facility for the School of Chemical, Biological and Ecological Engineering. The three-story, 58,000-sf Johnson Hall will provide interdisciplinary laboratories for collaborative research, faculty offices, classrooms, and a center for engineering student recruitment and retention. The project architect is SRG Partnership with Research Facilities Design (RFD) as laboratory programming and design consultant.

James Madison University is building a $65 million facility for the College of Health and Behavioral Studies (CHBS) in Harrisonburg, Va. Designed by EYP Architecture & Engineering, the six-story, 150,000-sf project will provide collaborative labs and classrooms for four of the university’s CHBS programs, including nursing. The building will include simulation training suites as well as administrative and faculty offices. Construction began on the facility in fall of 2014 and completion is expected in June of 2016.

The University of Central Florida is partnering with Osceola County and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council to create the $72 million Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center in Kissimmee. Housing the world’s first industry-led smart sensor consortium, the 100,000-sf research and incubation facility will be leased and operated by the University of Central Florida. The construction manager for the project is Skanska USA.
 

Inova Health is acquiring a 117-acre campus in Merrifield, Va., as the site for a new biomedical research complex called the Center for Personalized Health. The first phase of construction will create the Inova Translational Medicine Institute and the Inova Comprehensive Cancer and Research Institute. The $200 million, 180,000-sf project is slated for occupancy by early 2018. Existing facilities on the campus will be renovated to provide advanced laboratory space for collaborative genomics research.

Winthrop-University Hospital opened the $110 million Research and Academic Center in February of 2015 in Mineola, N.Y. Designed by Perkins Eastman, the five-story, 95,000-sf facility will support translational research on pediatric and adult diabetes in conjunction with patient care and community education. The center provides classrooms, a clinical trials center, a simulation training suite, a 350-seat auditorium, and core labs for the study of diabetes, obesity, cardiopulmonary disease, and neurology.