Higher Education

Texas A&M University opened an 11,000-sf avian health complex for the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences in August of 2015. Located in College Station, the climate-controlled aviary facility provides a BSL-2 biocontainment lab, a bird hospital, quarantine suites, three isolation rooms, classrooms, and offices.

Lorain County Community College’s new 53,000-gsf Laboratory Sciences Building houses facilities for the departments of biology, chemistry, and physics, with 24-person teaching labs and lab support rooms, a student commons, break-out space designed to serve as open study space, and a rooftop teaching greenhouse.

The College of New Jersey is planning to build a facility for STEM education in Ewing to support programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Designed by EYP Architecture & Engineering, the 89,000-sf project will feature collaborative research suites for biomedical engineering and computer science, as well as labs for physiology, robotics, system dynamics, and thermo-fluids. The facility will include a high-performance computing cluster, a mechanical engineering design studio, and a metal fabrication and assembly workshop.

Clayton State University opened its $18 million Science Building in August of 2015 in Morrow, Ga. Designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative, the 58,610-sf facility provides eight research labs, eight teaching labs, two 64-seat classrooms, two 36-seat classrooms, and two seminar rooms. The three-story building houses stacked biology and chemistry suites, each integrating research, prep, and teaching space.

Stephen F. Austin State University has selected Kirksey Architecture of Houston to design a $46.4 million STEM building in Nacogdoches, Texas. The collaborative learning facility will accommodate programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The construction manager for the project is J.E. Kingham Construction Company.

Houston Community College’s medical training school, Coleman College for Health Sciences, will break ground in fall of 2015 on a $120 million expansion of its campus at the Texas Medical Center. Designed by HDR Inc., the 10-story, 248,000-sf Coleman Healthcare Educational Facility will provide classrooms, clinical skills suites, simulation labs, faculty and administrative offices, an auditorium, and a student services center. The construction manager for the project is Tellepsen Builders. Completion is expected in summer of 2017.

The University of Sheffield is planning to build the $25 million Structural Dynamics Laboratory for Verification and Validation in the United Kingdom. Located in the Advanced Manufacturing Park, the facility will enable industry and academia to engage in collaborative research and development in the field of structural dynamics. Enabling full-scale testing of engineering structures, systems, and components, the project will feature a modular environmental chamber with sophisticated controls for humidity, temperature, wind speed, and weather conditions.

Muskegon Community College will renovate two historic structures to create its new engineering campus in downtown Muskegon, Mich. Designed by C2AE and MMA Architects, the project will transform the existing Muskegon Chronicle Building and the adjacent Masonic Temple into a vibrant and transparent facility for learning.

The University of Missouri opened the MU Metagenomics Center in August of 2015 in Columbia. The laboratory is located in a shared 60,000-sf facility at the Discovery Ridge Research Park and will serve as a comprehensive resource for microbiological research. Featuring advanced technologies for DNA extraction, RNA sequencing, and informatics analysis, the center will process samples of microbiota obtained from humans, animals, plants, and soil. 

SUNY Upstate Medical Center began construction in June of 2015 on the second phase of the Central New York Biotech Accelerator (CNYBAC) in Syracuse, N.Y. Designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative, the project includes the build out of the second and third floors of the facility to house the Upstate Medical Innovation and Novel Discovery Center (MIND) and the Molecular Pathology Next Generation Sequencing Lab.

Seton Hill University opened the $23 million JoAnne Woodyard Boyle Health Science Center in July of 2015 in Greensburg, Pa. Designed by MacLachlan, Cornelius and Filoni, the 52,000-sf project provides teaching and research labs, classrooms, faculty offices, and a lecture hall for the Division of Natural and Health Sciences. The center features a three-story glass atrium, a 20-table physician assistant training lab, and a gross anatomy facility.

The University of Bristol is initiating an expansion of the Queens School of Engineering in the United Kingdom. The 15,400-sf wing will provide a multipurpose teaching auditorium, an electrical engineering teaching lab, a propulsion lab, research offices, and student meeting space. The general contractor for the project is Willmott Dixon with WSP-Parsons Brinckerhoff as structural and civil engineering consultant. Occupancy is expected in fall of 2017.
 

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center will begin construction in early fall of 2015 on the $16 million Plough Center for Sterile Drug Delivery Systems in Memphis. An existing 32,000-sf facility will be renovated to support the manufacture of pharmaceutical products for clinical trials. Designed by brg3s Architects and ETFC Architects to meet GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) standards, the center will feature three 800-sf modular cleanroom pods created by G-CON Manufacturing.

Tsinghua University is expanding the Jinping Underground Laboratory in Liangshan, China. The project will increase the size of the lab, which is located 7,874 feet below the surface, to 1,291,000 sf. Supporting advanced research on dark matter, the expansion will allow more experiments to run concurrently in a location shielded from interfering cosmic rays. Completion is expected in late 2015. The Jinping Underground Laboratory opened in December of 2010.

The University of Florida opened the $46 million Harrell Medical Education Building in late July of 2015. Located on the Health Science Center campus in Gainesville, the four-story, 95,000-sf facility will support the College of Medicine’s interactive, team-based curriculum. The project features two 4,600-sf academic spaces designed to accommodate group learning at circular tables and a medical training center with 18 standardized patient exam rooms.