The University of Delaware opened a $180 million science and innovation facility in April of 2025 to catalyze interdisciplinary discovery and expand educational capacity. Built on the former site of McKinley Hall in Newark, the 132,500-sf building houses research and teaching labs with damp and dry functionalities, faculty offices and student workspaces, and conference rooms.
Purdue University broke ground on a $168 million facility for the Mitch Daniels School of Business in April of 2025 in West Lafayette, Ind. Designed by Gensler and BSA, the 164,000-gsf structure will feature sophisticated labs for behavioural research, financial training, and data visualization. Dynamic conference venues will be accompanied by studios enabling online and hybrid pedagogies.
Related Midwest and CRG are planning to establish the $9 billion Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) in Chicago. Supported by $500 million in state funding, this dynamic nexus will enable the entire ecosystem of researchers, suppliers, end users, and partners to accelerate quantum innovation, scale-up, and commercialization. The strategic location on the former U.S. Steel South Works site will ensure optimal access to academic affiliates, local talent, and power and water infrastructure.
Rice University opened the Rice Nexus in February of 2025 in Houston's Midtown neighborhood. Spanning 10,000 sf across two floors, the university’s flagship innovation hub is based in the Ion building to drive entrepreneurship and commercialization in association with industry partners. Tramonte Design Studio's vision for the Rice Nexus created labs for advanced tech development and free office space for early-stage startups, as well as showcasing faculty and student inventions.
Stanford University opened its new 167,000-gsf Computing and Data Science building in January of 2025 in Palo Alto, Calif. Designed by LMN Architects to drive interdisciplinary research and innovation, the facility houses the Stanford Data Science and Impact Labs initiatives, as well as undergraduate programs in computer science and symbolic systems.
Construction has begun on the College of the Desert's $268 million campus in Palm Springs, Calif. Designed by WRNS Studio, this regional hub for education and innovation will provide dry labs, maker spaces, and studios for architecture, recording, and film. With multiple buildings spanning 27 acres, the 175,000-sf complex features The Accelerator, a two-story structure accommodating programs in digital media and arts, healthcare, and architecture.
Mount Sinai Health System opened the $100 million Hamilton and Amabel James Center for Artificial Intelligence and Human Health in November of 2024 in New York. Designed by HOK, the project involved the transformation of a former nursing residence into a 65,000-sf research hub for computational discovery. The 12-story structure will initially house approximately 40 principal investigators, alongside 250 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, computer scientists, and staff.
The fast-moving nature of biotechnology innovation means architects and designers for Regeneron have to plan for researchers’ requirements to change by the time new laboratories open on the Tarrytown, N.Y., campus. The campus is undergoing a $1.8 billion expansion, adding 900,000 sf of new laboratory and office space, along with additional parking, amenities, and infrastructure to support research and development.
The vision of biomedical research as a collective effort is resoundingly clear in the $237.5 million Pelotonia Research Center, the first building to be completed in the 350-plus-acre Carmenton district on the campus of The Ohio State University (Ohio State) in Columbus. Opened in May 2023, the center integrates almost 100,000 sf of wet labs, 25,000 sf of computational labs, and 20,000 sf of core labs in a single facility designed to host interdisciplinary collaborations and public-private initiatives that focus on solving some of the most critical health challenges. With life science as the backbone of the research endeavor, current projects range from modeling cancer progressions to 3D printing of patient-specific anatomic models.
UK Research and Innovation opened the £93 million National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) in Harwell in October of 2024. Located on the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Campus in Oxfordshire, the 43,055-sf facility features sophisticated dry research environments where multidisciplinary teams can design, build, and operate quantum computers. Available to users from across industry and academia, this purpose-built hub is envisioned as a catalyst for the discovery and the scale-up of commercially viable technologies.
Virginia Commonwealth University needed new space for math and science classes. When prototypes and stakeholder feedback indicated the student experience was top priority, they changed their planned two-stage facility to a single STEM building focused on making it easier for students to learn in the ways that suit them best, with spaces designed to break down barriers between faculty and students.
Lehigh University's new Health, Science & Technology Building is designed to break down silos between academic departments, to enhance faculty research and better prepare students for tomorrow’s transdisciplinary world. Three different lab modules—with no walls between them—facilitate easy transitions from one use to another, as well as expansion and contraction as needs change. And collaboration spaces are strategically located between labs throughout the building.
Prior to the development of a master plan for expansion of research facilities at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), campus facility planners conducted a 15-month strategic visioning initiative that resulted in the creation of a digital space planning and visualization tool called PREVIEW.
The University of Pennsylvania dedicated Amy Gutmann Hall in September of 2024 in Philadelphia. Providing a centralized home for both undergraduate and research programs in data science and artificial intelligence, the $140 million facility collocates shared resources in order to make data analysis tools more accessible to the entire university community. The 116,000-sf structure was designed by Lake Flato and KSS Architects with Research Facilities Design (RFD) as laboratory design consultant.
The University at Buffalo broke ground on the $111 million Russell L. Agrusa Hall in September of 2024. Accommodating the continued growth of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, this hub of student-centric activity was designed by Page to prepare the STEM workforce of tomorrow to address society's greatest challenges. The state-of-the-art facility will include interactive spaces to support university-wide collaborations, as well as maker spaces, prototyping and fabrication suites, and areas for organizations and clubs.
