Higher Education

Valley College broke ground July 5, 2006 on the $46-million Allied Health and Science Center. Located in Valley Glen, Calif., the three-story, 98,000-sf facility will house state-of-the-art computer and teaching labs and classrooms for biology, chemistry, physics, nursing, anthropology, earth sciences, and respiratory therapy. The building will be constructed to sustainable design standards including rooftop photovoltaics, low-flow plumbing fixtures, drought-resistant landscaping, and recycled building materials.

The State of Maryland is constructing the new State Forensic Medical Center at the University of Maryland's BioPark in Baltimore. The 120,000-sf facility will house the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and will adhere to strict biosafety laboratory criteria. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene may occupy the remaining 26,000-sf in the six-story facility. The first level of the facility will accommodate loading and parking. The joint venture of Gaudreau Inc.

SUNY Upstate Medical University is planning to construct the $10-million Setnor Academic Building on its Syracuse Campus. The five-story, 46,000-sf facility will include conference rooms, faculty offices, six reconfigurable classrooms, and the Clinical Skills Teaching Center which features 22 exam rooms and closed-circuit monitoring. The designer of the project is Holt Architects PC of Ithaca, NY. Completion is expected in 2007.

The University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine is nearing completion of the $90-million Clinical Research Institute. Located at the Jackson Memorial campus in the city of Miami, the 15-story facility was designed by Perkins + Will to sustainable design criteria and vouched to be Miami's "greenest" building at present. Sustainable design features include a reflective roof, double-paned windows containing insulating gas, and under-floor air conditioning. The facility includes a 1,400-car garage and a large wellness center.

The 26,000-sf Natural Sciences Building at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., is slated for occupancy in 2007. Construction on the $17.2-million facility began in fall of 2005. The building will feature four new teaching laboratories, five new classrooms, centralized science faculty offices, and a student computer room. The addition is the first facility at Mills to meet LEED™ sustainable building criteria and features reduced energy and water consumption.

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center has opened ts new 94,000-sf proton therapy center in Houston. The $125-million facility was constructed via a private-public partnership with investors and partners including Hitachi, Sanders Morris Harris Inc., and The Styles Co. The two-story center will be able to accommodate up to 3,500 patients annually and features one fixed-beam treatment room, three gantry treatment rooms, an experimental treatment area, a synchrotron, and beam transport system.

Utica College in New York broke ground on the F. Eugene Romano Hall in spring of 2006. The building, slated for completion in summer of 2007, is the first phase of a planned $7-million, 23,000-sf health science and technology complex that will reach completion in approximately five years. The complex will house classrooms, laboratories, and clinical space for studies in physical and occupational therapy, health studies, nursing, psychology, and therapeutic recreation.

The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and Sasaki Associates of Boston have created a $6.7-billion, 30-year expansion plan in Philadelphia. To be constructed with several third-party developers, the master plan includes medical, office, educational, housing, retail, and research space. UPenn is working with Atlanta-based University Partners on a $50-million multifamily housing facility to include 150 units and 40,000 sf of ground-floor retail. UPenn will develop other multifamily housing rentals nearby.

Duke University's $115-million French Science Center is slated for completion in December 2006. Named for donor Melinda French Gates, the facility bring various arts and sciences under one roof with teaching and research laboratories for biological chemistry, genomics, materials science, physical biology, nanoscience, and bioinformatics. The facility will also house the departments of biology, chemistry, anatomy, anthropology, physics, mathematics, and six research greenhouses.

The University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine opened its $63-million Animal Health Research Center in early summer of 2006. Dedicated to the study of the treatment and prevention of emerging infectious diseases of zoonotic origin, the three-story, 75,00-sf BSL-3AG facility accommodates biocontainment spaces for the study of agents requiring BSL-1 to BSL-3 facilities.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) will begin construction in summer of 2009 on a $132-million arts and humanities facility. Funded by the state, the 220,000-sf building will include a 425-seat concert hall, a 300-seat theater and a smaller theater, a recital hall, a dance studio, and classrooms. The facility will be sited on a hillside adjacent to the existing fine arts building and will house UMBC's English, ancient studies, music, dance, and philosophy departments.

Utah State University is constructing the $13-million David G. Sant Engineering Innovation Building on its Logan campus. The three-story, 34,000-sf facility is 135 feet long by 84 feet wide and will house laboratories of various sizes with modular, flexible bays.

The University of California, San Diego completed the $17-million expansion and renovation of the Biomedical Library on its La Jolla, Calif., campus in late spring of 2006. McCarthy Building Companies served as construction manager and general contractor for the project, which entailed the addition of 43,454 sf of space to the existing 32,950-sf library, as well as renovation of the existing structure. Los Angeles-based Pfeiffer Partners was the architect.

The University of Puerto Rico (UPR) at Mayaguez has plans to break ground in summer 2006 on the $15-million Bioprocess Institute, which will provide both capacity for  monoclonal bioprocess research as well as perform pilot-scale production. At UPR's Rio Piedras campus, the $85-million, 150,000-sf Molecular Sciences Complex will break ground later in 2006.

Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) is nearing completion of construction on it's new  $145.4-million Center for Health and Healing. The 400,000-sf, mixed-use facility is engineered for a LEED Platinum rating.  OHSU expects to save $700,000 annually in energy and operating costs thanks to the building's "green" features.