Sustainability

Central Michigan University began construction in September of 2014 on the $95 million Biosciences Building in Mount Pleasant. Designed by Stantec, the four-story, 169,000-sf facility will provide teaching labs, research labs, a BSL-3 suite, lecture halls, classrooms, faculty offices, an auditorium, an herbarium, an imaging center, and an aquatic research vivarium. Occupancy is expected in January of 2017. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the project, which is is being built by Clark Construction.

The five-story, 70,000-sf Duke Environment Hall, home of Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, serves as a living laboratory of sustainable design. The building, which is tracking LEED Platinum, houses the rapidly expanding undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students in the Environmental Sciences and Policy program.

SUNY New Paltz broke ground on a $48 million science building in September of 2014. Designed by ZGF Architects, the two-story, 77,000-sf facility will provide classrooms and labs for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs. Completion is expected in January of 2017. LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the project.

Murray State University broke ground on the new Breathitt Veterinary Center in September of 2014. Located in Hopkinsville, Ky., the $32.4 million facility will provide laboratories for pathology, virology, toxicology, microbiology, clinical chemistry, histology, serology, and molecular diagnostics. Replacing the state’s existing animal disease diagnostic lab, the 53,000-sf project will include a BSL-3 suite as well as technology-rich classrooms and collaborative research space.

Primary Children's Hospital will open the 240,000-sf Outpatient Services Building in Salt Lake City in October of 2014. Featuring a 300-ft sky bridge to the existing hospital, the six-story addition will provide 67 new exam rooms, offices for clinicians and faculty members, and a medical laboratory. The LEED Silver facility features automated window shades, motion-activated lighting, and window glazing for reduced heat gain. Primary Children's is the pediatric teaching hospital for the University of Utah School of Medicine.

The University of Maryland is planning to build the $140 million Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science Innovation in College Park. The facility will provide UMD’s Department of Computer Science and the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies with technology-rich labs and workrooms for the study of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, computer vision, robotics, and virtual reality. Designed to support collaborative learning, the LEED-certified project will include classrooms for the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences.

The new 465,560-sf Ghana Ridge Hospital is being constructed in Accra. The Government of Ghana selected the design-build team of Perkins+Will and Americaribe to create the 600-bed replacement hospital, which will be the largest medical center in the country. The sustainably designed facility will feature passive cooling, solar water heating, and controlled daylight harvesting. The project will be constructed in two phases, with the first 307,000-sf phase providing approximately 400 beds.

Central Michigan University is constructing a $25 million facility for the College of Medicine in Saginaw. The two-story, 46,000-sf project is expected to attain LEED Silver sustainable design certification and will provide classrooms, procedure training rooms, offices, a student commons, and a library. The general contractor is Barton Malow and completion is expected in May of 2015. The project represents the first phase of CMU's $46.5 million College of Medicine East Campus, which is being created in partnership with Covenant HealthCare and St.

The University of Pennsylvania is constructing the $68.6 million Neural and Behavioral Sciences Building in Philadelphia. Designed by SmithGroup, the six-story interdisciplinary facility will support collaborative research in biology and psychology and will connect two existing structures. The 78,000-gsf building will house classrooms, research labs, offices, study areas, an auditorium, and interaction space. A minimum of LEED Silver sustainable certification will be sought for the facility, which will feature a metal mesh sunshade façade and a green roof.

The J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla is home to 125 researchers and staff dedicated to genomic research involving infectious disease, microbial and environmental genomics, plant genomics, and synthetic biology and bioengineering. It is located on the campus of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), to take advantage of collaboration opportunities with scientists from UCSD, Scripps, and others.

Weber State University is building the $64 million Tracy Hall Science Center in Ogden, Utah. Designed by VCBO Architects of Salt Lake City, the 175,000-sf facility will provide advanced labs and classrooms as well as housing all eight departments of the College of Science. The laboratory programming and design consultant is Research Facilities Design (RFD) of San Diego. A minimum of LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the project.

Ground was broken in August of 2014 on the $295 million Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas. The 211-bed teaching hospital is located in Austin adjacent to the new Dell Medical School campus and will replace the existing University Medical Center Brackenridge. The 500,000-sf facility will be owned and operated by Seton, a subsidiary of Ascension Health. The project team includes architect HKS and general contractor JE Dunn.

Binghamton University broke ground in August of 2014 on the $70 million Smart Energy Research and Development Facility in Vestal, N.Y. Housing the departments of physics and chemistry, the two-story, 114,000-sf project will include laboratories, 45 faculty offices, and a total of 125 fume hoods. The building will accommodate research programs in solar and thermoelectric energy harvesting, energy storage, energy efficiency in electronic systems, and sensor development for energy resource management.

The University of Iowa completed construction of the $126 million Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building in July of 2014 in Iowa City. The six-story, 200,000-sf facility provides advanced research laboratories for faculty from the UI Carver College of Medicine. The interdisciplinary project was designed by Gwathmey-Siegel in collaboration with Rohrbach & Associates with Payette as laboratory design consultant.

Rice University opened the Anderson-Clarke Center for Continuing Studies in August of 2014 in Houston. Designed by Overland Partners of San Antonio, the three-story, 54,800-sf building provides 24 classrooms, offices, conference rooms, a language center, an auditorium, and a commons area. Housing the Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, the $24 million project creates a new campus gateway and is expected to attain LEED Silver sustainable design certification.