Engineering

The University of Texas at San Antonio is planning to construct a $90 million facility that will house the School of Data Science and the National Security Collaboration Center. The School of Data Science will occupy 84,500 sf of classroom, lab, and office space in the structure, which will collocate the departments of computer science, computer engineering, statistics and data sciences, and information systems and cybersecurity.

Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology is planning to construct the CAD$105 million A-Block Building Expansion in Toronto. Acting as a gateway to the school's Progress Campus in Scarborough, the 150,000-gsf project will be the first zero-carbon, mass-timber facility at an institution of higher education in Canada. Offering academic and social spaces for the School of Engineering Technology and Applied Science, the building will include flexible classrooms for active learning, laboratories, administrative offices, and an expansive atrium.

Washington State University Tri-Cities is constructing the $30 million Academic Confluence Building in Richland. Designed by ZGF Architects with Research Facilities Design (RFD) as laboratory design consultant, the 40,000-sf facility will feature state-of-the-art teaching labs for programs in physics, biology, chemistry, geology, engineering, and anatomy and physiology.

Rutgers University’s new 110,000-sf, $84 million Richard Weeks Hall of Engineering, designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative (SLAM) and opened in 2018, provides state-of-the-art teaching suites and labs for concept development, pilot manufacturing, high-bay testing, rapid prototyping, and microfabrication in an interdisciplinary environment that serves students, faculty, and industry. In addition to smart classroom configurations, flexible learning laboratories, and collaborative work space, the building itself serves as a lab and allows for data gathering and hands-on learning. Rutgers’ 2014 strategic plan identified its School of Engineering as central to the university’s growth and success, and this LEED Gold-certified facility represents the first step in a physical master plan that supports both the school and university strategic plans.

The US Navy broke ground in May of 2020 on the $23 million Directed Energy Systems Integration Laboratory in Port Hueneme, Calif. Located at Naval Base Ventura County's Point Mugu sea range, the 18,500-sf facility will allow the Naval Surface Warfare Center to provide accelerated delivery of laser lethality to warfighters at sea.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is renovating and expanding its engineering complex to provide leading-edge environments for learning and discovery. The $75 million project will replace an existing 25,300-sf structure with an 87,000-sf research facility connecting the Scott Engineering Center to Nebraska Hall. The four-story, 177,000-gsf Scott Engineering Center will be renovated to provide new undergraduate teaching labs, research labs, classrooms, and departmental offices.

The University of Maine began construction in May of 2020 on the $78 million Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center in Orono. Designed by Ellenzweig and WBRC Architects/Engineers to promote experiential learning, the 108,000-sf facility will feature hands-on teaching labs for programs in mechanical and biomedical engineering. The three-story multidisciplinary building will also offer instructional spaces, capstone project rooms, a collaboration commons, conference rooms, informal meeting areas, and offices for faculty and staff.

Forsyth Technical Community College is constructing the $16 million Mazie S. Woodruff Aviation Technology Lab at Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem, N.C. Designed by Walter Robbs Callahan + Pierce, the 53,000-sf building will accommodate training programs in aircraft maintenance and avionics (aircraft electronics). The two-story facility will provide classrooms, teaching labs, and a 12,000-sf airframe lab capable of storing eight aircraft.

The University of Mississippi is planning to begin construction in late 2020 on the $160 million Jim and Thomas Duff Center for Science and Technology Innovation in Oxford. The 204,000-sf facility will provide leading-edge laboratories, interactive classrooms, collaboration areas, lounges, breakout spaces, conference and meeting rooms, and offices for faculty and staff. Anchoring the new Science District, the building is expected to be one of the nation’s leading student-centered learning environments for STEM programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The U.S. Department of Energy is planning to begin construction in 2021 on the $75 million Grid Storage Launchpad at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. Designed as a resource hub for the development of next-generation grid energy storage technologies, the R&D facility will provide labs for basic materials synthesis and processing, in-operando characterization, small-scale cell fabrication, kilowatt-scale testing and validation, advanced prototyping, visualization, and analysis.

Virginia Tech is planning to break ground in fall of 2021 on the first academic building on its Innovation Campus in Alexandria. Designed by SmithGroup, the 300,000-gsf facility will offer experiential learning environments, maker spaces, flexible multipurpose venues, and research and testing labs for the school's graduate programs in computer science and engineering. The sustainably designed structure will feature a façade with integrated photovoltaic panels, a rooftop solar array, and geothermal and sewage water energy exchange technologies.

New guidance has been released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury which makes Paycheck Protection Program loans available to companies with 500 or fewer employees, as well as to firms that fall below the size standards set by the Small Business Administration. Construction companies, whose status is generally determined by average annual income threshold and not by number of employees, will benefit from this amendment to the previous announcement, which required a business to meet both criteria to be eligible.

Blinn College is planning to build the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Innovation Building on the RELLIS campus in Brenham, Texas. Designed by PBK Architects to accommodate programs in engineering, chemistry, physics, microbiology, geology, and health sciences, the 72,000-sf structure will offer 17,000 sf of laboratory space and a 3,000-sf innovation hub.

Hyundai Motor Company will break ground in October of 2020 on the Hyundai Mobility Global Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICs). The 300,000-sf facility will be located on over ten acres in the Jurong Innovation District, an advanced manufacturing campus developed by JTC Corporation. Supported by funding from the Singapore Economic Development Board, the open innovation hub will accelerate the discovery of new sustainable mobility solutions.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution began construction in March of 2020 on a 50,000-sf innovation hub in Falmouth, Mass. Designed by DSK, the three-story building will provide offices, labs, and meeting spaces for new research programs on above-water and underwater autonomous vehicle and sensor technologies (AVAST). Supporting WHOI's Strategic Facility Assessment, the project will enable staff to be relocated from existing waterfront facilities in order to collocate investigators and enhance research synergies.