Higher Education

Texas Christian University is initiating a $100-million construction project on its Fort Worth, Texas, campus. A campus commons comprised of a university union and four residence halls will begin construction in summer 2006. The project will house a conference hall, dining facilities, space for campus activities, and dormitory space for 600 to 650 students. Funded separately, the School of Education will undergo a $10.5-million renovation and construction project.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth broke ground on a new 22,000-sf research and laboratory facility in fall of 2005. Designed by ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge, the two-story, $9-million project will be built as an extension to the Violette Building. The first floor has been designed with flexible, modular laboratories to accommodate chemistry, biology, psychology, engineering, and a vivarium. The second floor will house containment laboratories for research.

Brown University has received $11 million in funding from a renewal of the National Institutes of Health's Center of Biomedical Research Excellence Grant. In addition to funding research projects, the grant will create a bioinformatics core facility for conducting database analysis. A genomics core facility and a transgenic core facility for creating genetically altered mice, created by the previous NIH grant, will also be supported by the funding.

The University of Kentucky will complete the $17-million Center for Pharmaceutical Science and Technology on the 735-acre Coldstream Research Campus in Lexington in February of 2006. The center is one of two in the nation approved by the FDA to manufacture small drug batches for human trials. Additionally, private developer Kale Roscoe of Michigan is planning to construct two five-story buildings housing offices and labs at the research park.

Eckerd College has selected Cannon Design as the architect for a new wellness center and recreational complex on the college's Boca Raton, Fla., campus. Planned as a recreation and fitness village composed of smaller buildings, the 30,000-sf facility will feature three two-story pods connected on both levels by walkways, terraces, and decks. The student life complex will include expanded facilities for dining, retail, and recreation spaces.

The University of South Florida-Lakeland is planning to develop a $200-million campus and research park on 500 acres located between Orlando and Tampa in Lakeland, Fla. The 1 milllion-square foot campus will be accommodate 16,000-students, dorm space for 500, and 4,500 parking spaces when it opens in 2009. The project will include office and retail spce.

The University of Connecticut dedicated its new 226,000-sf Pharmacy/Biology Building on October 21, 2005. The 226,000-sf facility was constructed with a cold room on every floor and houses laboratory and office space for the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Physiology and Neurobiology. The School of Pharmacy is also located in the building in a wing featuring classrooms, labs, offices, conference rooms, and a library.

Franklin & Marshall College celebrated the groundbreaking of the $45-million Ann & Richard Barshinger Life Sciences & Philosophy Building in October 2005.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison opened its new 20,000-sf AIDS Vaccine Research Laboratory in the University Research Park on Sept. 16, 2005. The remodeled facility will house between 40 and 45 scientists and graduate students engaged in molecular biology, cell biology, and protein biochemistry research.

The University of Tennessee is developing the UT-Baptist Research Park in Memphis, Tenn. The 10-acre campus will consist of 1.2 million sf of bioscience laboratory, education, research, and incubator space.  Baptist Memorial Health Care donated its property in the Memphis Medical District to create the campus. A 924,000-sf building will be imploded to enable new construction to begin in the second quarter of 2006. The project will be built in six phases over ten years.

McMaster University opened the $71-million Michael G. DeGroote Centre of Learning and Discovery on Sept. 22, 2005. Housing over 250 scientists that will work collaboratively to discover new gene-based medicines, the facility includes a specialized robotic microscope, one of three in the world. Featuring primarily open laboratories, the facility houses the Centre for Functional Genomics; the Centre for Gene Therapeutics; the Institute for Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Research; the Robert E.

The University of Virginia will begin construction in fall 2005 on the $71-million Carter-Harrison Medical Research Building (MRB) at its main Charlottesville campus. Housing approximately 300 scientists and laboratory staff grouped in 60 research teams, the 189,000-gsf facility was designed by HDR Engineering of Alexandria, Va.

Construction of two new laboratories and a central energy plant upgrade for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is nearing completion on its Quisset Campus in Woods Hole, Mass. One laboratory, the 32,000-sf marine research facility, was constructed primarily for researchers to study marine mammals and their environment. The second new building is a 35,000-sf biogeochemistry laboratory to study organic materials in the marine environment. The two laboratories increase the Institution's scientific research space by more than 20 percent.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine is constructing a five-story, 123,974-sf facility in the University City district of Philadelphia. Slated for completion in fall of 2006, the $70-million Vernon and Shirley Hill Pavillion will house teaching and research space, surgery centers, labs, and a vivarium.

Syracuse University is broke ground in April of 2006 on the $107-million Life Sciences Complex, an addition to the Center for Science and Technology (CST) on the college's Syracuse, N.Y., campus. Slated to open in fall 2008, the facility will double CST's existing footprint by adding up to 210,000 sf of laboratory and classroom space.