Higher Education

Auburn University is building the Wilford and Kate Bailey Small Animal Teaching Hospital in Auburn, Ala. The 208,000-sf facility features designated units for each type of hospital service, each including an exam room, a treatment room, and a student seminar room. The hospital will also house a sterile surgical suite, a critical care unit, diagnostic imaging, radiology, and clinical pathology. Construction began in spring of 2012 and completion is expected in fall of 2014.

The University of British Columbia has received LEED Gold certification from the Canada Green Building Council for the 172,000-sf Biological Sciences Complex renewal project in Vancouver. Designed by Aston Ostry Architects, the renovated facility provides advanced research space for the Departments of Botany and Zoology.

Loyola University Chicago will break ground in August of 2013 on the $137 million Center for Translational Research and Education. Created in partnership with CHE-Trinity, the five-story, 227,000-sf facility will provide open labs and support space for research in epidemiology, public health, bioinformatics, nursing, and health sciences. The center will accommodate 72 principal investigators and will include a 250-seat auditorium. Occupancy is expected in August of 2016.

The University of Minnesota will break ground in fall of 2013 on a $63 million microbiology research facility in Minneapolis. The 80,000-sf project will be the final building to be constructed in UM's $292 million Biomedical Discovery District and will house the Department of Microbiology and other departments and schools within the Academic Health Center. Designed by BWBR Architects, the facility will provide labs, offices, collaboration areas, pharmaceutical R&D suites, and biocontainment space for the study of infectious diseases.

AssetWorks, a leader in intelligent workplace management, has secured a contract with the University of Maine System to provide a comprehensive integrated workplace management system (IWMS) intended to replace a legacy environment of four disparate management tools and numerous standalone Microsoft® Excel and Access databases. AiM™ from AssetWorks is expected to manage a broad swath of functions spanning operations and maintenance, space management, utilities management, and capital planning.

Louisiana State University will begin construction in fall of 2014 on a $100 million expansion of the College of Engineering in Baton Rouge. The project includes building a new chemical engineering annex and the expansion and renovation of the existing 306,000-sf Taylor Hall. Completion is expected in 2017.

Midwestern University is building the $100 million College of Veterinary Medicine in Glendale, Ariz. The project includes a 50,000-sf large animal teaching facility, a 76,000-sf academic building, and a 100,000-sf small animal clinic. Ground was broken on the facility in early 2013 and occupancy is expected in fall of 2014.

The University of Bristol is building the $82 million Life Sciences building in the United Kingdom. The 145,313-sf facility will provide teaching and research labs, seminar rooms, and offices arranged around a central atrium. Supporting advanced biological sciences research, the building will include a five-story laboratory wing with microscopy and spectroscopy rooms, acoustic chambers, cleanrooms, and greenhouses. The project was designed by Sheppard Robson and is being built by VINCI Construction.

Lacking space for its health science programs but faced with a limited budget, the University of Georgia is repurposing a former Navy Supply Corps School as a new Health Sciences campus, salvaging a property slated for closure and creating a more modern, collaborative learning environment. Throughout the renovation process, the challenges have been managing end-user expectations, balancing practicality with functionality—including reusing some materials—and dealing with diverse properties in this compatible but not perfectly matched space.

An addition of 14,600 sf and renovation of 29,300 sf have transformed Connecticut College’s first campus building, New London Hall, built in 1914, into a modern science facility, housing the biology, botany, and computer science departments.

McMaster University has selected CS&P Architects to design its new 150,000-sf humanities and social sciences facility in Hamilton, Ontario. The five-story Wilson Hall will provide active learning classrooms, formal and informal learning environments, and a variety of study areas. The facility will also include a 350-seat concert hall, a 150-seat black box theater, and a 400-seat tiered lecture hall.

The University of Miami is building the 37,000-sf Neuroscience and Health Annex in Coral Gables, Fla. The interdisciplinary facility will enable scientists from the departments of biology and psychology to collaborate with researchers from the Miller School of Medicine. The three-story project is partially funded by $14.8 million in federal stimulus funding and will provide research labs, offices, a vivarium, and a human functional magnetic resonance imaging lab (HFMRI). LEED Silver sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Medical Research Building IV provides a highly flexible environment for innovative research: Labs are arranged in 22-ft modules with alcoves for specialty uses such as fume hoods and tissue culture rooms. Ceiling-mounted service connections and mobile storage units allow easy reconfiguration of lab benches. The project was the first U.S. application of Venturi-Wedge induction, a highly efficient system to maintain the precise temperatures required in laboratories. This single measure saved approximately $2,400,000 in Phase 1 construction costs.

The Health Sciences Learning Center at the University of Wisconsin supports the evolving needs of education, research, and clinical practice in a unified facility for the Medical, Nursing, and Pharmacy schools.

The heart of the Learning Center is the Ebling Library, which is part of a statewide outreach program to serve both advanced research and public inquiry. The Library administers many other resources in the Center, including seminar, lecture, and distance learning facilities; digital labs, and clinical suites. The Center also provides a campus lounge and bookstore.

Columbia University’s Northwest Corner Building accomplishes several goals the University identified over time: Invest in its natural sciences programs, promote collaboration opportunities within a new building, provide links to other campus buildings, and create campus-wide amenities that would promote student interaction.