Higher Education

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.

The 55,000-sf James Center for Molecular and Life Sciences at Eckerd College houses biology, chemistry, and biochemistry departments under one roof for the first time, with biology and chemistry offices interspersed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration. The building contains nine 24-student teaching labs, two classrooms, four faculty-student research spaces, and 14 faculty offices.

Clark College is building a $41 million academic facility to support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) programs in Vancouver, Wash. Designed by LSW Architects, the three-story, 70,000-sf project will provide 26 instructional spaces as well as labs, offices, and study areas for the departments of biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. The building will feature a 44-ft drop tower for student experiments, a three-story lobby, a machine shop, a cadaver lab, and an outdoor classroom.

The University of Washington is building the $123.5 million Animal Research and Care Facility in Seattle. Housing the Department of Comparative Medicine, the 83,000-sf subterranean structure will accommodate rodents, pigs, dogs, and non-human primates. Comprising two floors of approximately 40,000 sf each, the facility will provide labs, procedure rooms, imaging suites, cage and equipment wash, storage, and support. Construction began in early 2015 and occupancy is expected in August of 2017.

Ramapo College is building the Adler Center for Nursing Excellence in Mahwah, N.J. Designed by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, the 36,000-sf facility will feature three simulation rooms, a nursing skills lab, an anatomy and physiology lab, classrooms, and computer labs. The project is part of a $54 million renovation of Ramapo College's science center and is being built by Cambridge Construction Management to attain LEED Silver sustainable design certification.

Ohio State University celebrated the opening of the $126 million Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry Building (CBEC) in Columbus in April of 2015. The two-building, 235,000-sf project includes a four-story teaching and research building physically connected to a six-story office and research building. The LEED-certified complex features wet research labs with ancillary support, computational research suites, shared core labs, instructional spaces, and offices for faculty, graduate students, and administration.

The seven-story, 310,000-gsf Life Science Laboratories (LSL) building at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the first interdisciplinary science building on the flagship campus, provides dry, damp, and wet lab space for a wide range of disciplines, from physics and engineering (dry) to biology and environmental science (damp) to chemical engineering and chemistry (wet).

University College London has awarded Graham Construction a $25 million contract to renovate the existing Courtauld Building to create a biomedical research facility. The project will house the Medical Research Council's Prion Unit and will accommodate the study of dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine broke ground in March of 2015 on a $32.4 million instructional building in Fort Smith. Designed by Risley & Associates, the three-story, 102,000-sf facility will provide classrooms, laboratories, and faculty offices. The project will be built by Beshears Construction and Nabholz Construction with completion expected by fall of 2017.

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.

Mercer University School of Medicine is engaged in an $18 million expansion of its Savannah campus at Memorial University Medical Center. Allowing an increase in enrollment from 160 to 240 students, the project includes renovation of 26,500 sf in the Hoskins Center for Biomedical Research to create updated classrooms, offices, labs, and library space. A 31,000-sf addition will be constructed to provide exam rooms for clinical training, simulation labs, tutorial rooms, student study spaces, and a student lounge.

The College of Lake County broke ground in March of 2015 on the $28.3 million Science and Engineering Building in Grayslake, Ill. The project includes construction of a three-story, 41,900-sf facility housing four laser and photonics labs, five chemistry labs, and an engineering lab. Additionally, 25,000 sf of existing space will be renovated to create labs for biology, microbiology, and anatomy and physiology.

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.

Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences will begin construction in summer of 2015 on the $45 million Medical Academic and Simulation Center in Tulsa. The four-story, 223,000-sf facility will include classrooms, clinical skills labs, a lecture hall, conference space, and a five-story parking garage. A hospital simulation center will include an emergency room, a surgical suite, a birthing room, an ambulance bay, and an intensive care unit to support advanced medical training.

Delaware State University is building the $60 million Optical Science Center for Applied Research (OSCAR) in Dover. Ground was broken on the 53,000-sf facility in October of 2012 and construction began in July of 2013. Designed by Richärd+Bauer, OSCAR will house the University’s optics program and is being built as two structures in separate construction phases.