Higher Education

Recent high-profile natural disasters and human-based incidents are driving vivarium facility owners to reevaluate their disaster and contingency plans. Traditional approaches to risk assessment and research preservation are often over-simplified, understaffed, and insufficiently funded. A new shift in thinking focuses on preparing for the net results of losing utilities, an entire building, or access to a section of campus rather than the initial causes.

Middle Tennessee State University is building the $147 million Science Building in Murfreesboro. Designed by joint venture firm Thomas Miller & Partners/Hastings Associates with Einhorn Yaffee Prescott as consultant, the facility will provide over 250,000 sf for STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Accommodating collaborative team-based learning, the building features two-tiered discussion classrooms, seven teaching labs, advanced instrumentation suites, and a 150-seat lecture hall.

The University of Wyoming is planning to build the $30 million Energy Engineering Research Facility (EERF) in Laramie. The 81,000-sf building will feature large-scale, flexibly configured research laboratories, offices, and meeting areas. The project team includes Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects of Seattle, Malone Belton Abel of Laramie, and GSG Architecture of Casper. Construction will begin in fall of 2014 with completion expected in spring of 2016.

Northwestern Medicine is planning to build a new biomedical research facility in Chicago. Connecting to the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center on every level, the building will provide between 300,000 and 500,000 sf of advanced translational research space. Total build-out is estimated at 1.2 million sf. The $1 billion project also includes the renovation of 250,000 sf of lab space in existing facilities.

A pedagogy pioneered at North Carolina State University (NCSU) is turning higher education upside down by redesigning the learning environment to foster interaction among today's technology-savvy students, and turning students into teachers in the process.

The newly renovated Saint Luke's Neuroscience Institute opened in January of 2013 in Kansas City, Mo. The $32 million project was designed by ACI/Boland with J.E. Dunn Construction as general contractor. Integrating research with clinical care, the project provides four dedicated neurological operation rooms, a 13-bed recovery unit, three neurointerventional suites, an 18-bed ICU, and 68 private patient rooms. The duration of construction was one year.

The University of Georgia is planning to build a $35 million facility for the Terry College of Business in Atlanta. The multi-story building will provide classrooms and offices for graduate and undergraduate programs. The project will be built by Hardin Construction. A design firm will be selected in February of 2013. 

The University of California, San Diego broke ground in January of 2013 on the $269 million Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute in La Jolla. Supporting the integration of genetic sequencing technologies into patient diagnosis and treatment, the seven-story, 315,000-sf project will provide collaborative research labs and offices for clinical investigators, informatics researchers, and biomedical scientists. The facility is located near Thornton Hospital, the Moores Cancer Center, the Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, and the new Jacobs Medical Center.

Washington University School of Medicine opened the $27.5 million Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in south St. Louis in January of 2013. The multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment facility provides medical offices, labs, a linear accelerator, and a chemotherapy infusion suite. The project team for the 37,500-sf center included architect and engineer BSA LifeStructures and general contractor Paric Construction. 

The University of Wollongong is building the $26 million Sustainable Buildings Research Centre in New South Wales, Australia. The 28,000-sf facility will be the first Australian project to be certified by the Living Building Challenge and is expected to attain a six-star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. Designed by Cox Richardson of Sydney and built by Baulderstone, the net-zero-energy and net-zero-water building will feature an advanced HVAC system, photovoltaics, wind turbines, and a ground source heat exchanger.

Although relatively small in size compared to more established research institutions, the University of New England (UNE) is making tremendous strides in growing its research and scholarship programs and infrastructure despite a shrinking pool of available grant funding. The private university, founded in 1978, began focusing its expansion efforts on biomedical research only within the past decade.

The University of Chicago Medical Center will open the $688 million Center for Care and Discovery in February of 2013. The 10-story, 1.2 million-sf hospital pavilion will support the research and treatment of complex medical conditions. The adjacent Mitchell Hospital will be renovated to provide single-patient rooms. 

The University of Minnesota is expanding and renovating the 152,800-sf Amundson Hall in Minneapolis. The project includes construction of a 41,140-sf addition and 6,676 sf of renovation and infrastructure improvements. Amundson Hall houses the department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, the Industrial Partnership for Research, and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. Work began on the facility in November of 2012 and completion is expected in fall of 2014.

Tulane University opened the Donna and Paul Flower Hall for Research and Innovation in December of 2012 in New Orleans. Designed by Woodward Design + Build, the four-story, 24,000-sf facility includes 10,000 sf of research space housing 13 interdisciplinary laboratories. The project includes two floors of shell space, the completion of which is not included in the $7.4 million construction cost of the building. The facility will support research in energy, environmental science, gene therapy, and vaccine delivery.

The University of Manchester began building the new Manchester Cancer Research Centre in December of 2012. The $46 million facility will provide advanced laboratories for the development of personalized cancer therapies. The project is created in partnership with Cancer Research UK and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. The general contractor is Capita Symonds. Occupancy is expected in summer of 2014.