Higher Education

Texas A&M University will begin relocating departments in fall of 2005 to its new $28-million Science & Technology Center in Commerce, Texas. The 110,000-sf facility will be fully occupied and open for classes in January 2006. The three-story center will house the departments of chemistry, physics, and environmental and biological sciences, as well as pre-med and pre-dental professional programs, the Science and Math Research and Teaching Program, and a tutoring center.

Oklahoma State University will initiate construction on the 123,000-sf Helmerich Advanced Technology Research Center on its Tulsa campus in October 2005. The approximately $45-million facility will enable the university to expand its nanotechnology and sensors research, promoting the development of new materials for commercial applications. The facility will house 40 faculty and 100 graduate students. Completion is expected in fall of 2007.

The University of South Florida opened its new nanotechnology building, Nanotech I, on Sept. 27, 2005. Located next to the College of Engineering on USF's Tampa campus, the $4-million facility houses over $10 million in instrumentation. The Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Research Center manages the building, which accommodates the research of 35 faculty members and approximately 100 students from the College of Engineering, the Departments of Physics, Biology, Chemistry, the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Research Center, and the College of Medicine. 

Harvard University has selected Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Fluor Corp. to manage the design and construction of the 510,000-sf Northwest Science Building in Cambridge, Mass. Housing labs, classrooms, and seminar rooms for bioengineering, neuroscience, and biophysics teaching and research, the facility is slated for completion by year-end 2007.

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center dedicated Phase II of the Hamilton Eye Institute in Memphis, Tenn., on Sept. 26, 2005. The second phase of the $63-million facility is comprised of 28,000 sf of laboratories; 20,000 sf of examination rooms; 10,000 sf of education and training facilities; 8,000 sf of office space; an ophthalmic ambulatory surgery center; and a 99-seat auditorium.

The University of Hawaii opened a new $150-facility at the John A. Burns School of Medicine on Sept. 30, 2005. The building consists of eighty percent laboratory space, including a BSL-3 suite, for researchers and programs relocated from the UH-Manoa campus. Those programs include Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases; the Cancer Research Center; Cell and Molecular Biology; Developmental and Reproductive Biology; Neuroscience; and Genomics.

Western Michigan University opened its new 200,000-sf College of Health and Human Services facility on its Kalamazoo campus in September of 2005. Designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, the building features state-of-the-art laboratories, four computer labs, multimedia and distance learning classrooms, biofeedback and motion analysis labs, faculty offices, and a 100-seat lecture hall.

Winston Salem University dedicated its new 62,000-sf Computer Science Center in September 2005. The $13-million facility features eight research labs, three computer labs, nine classrooms, and is connected to the high speed network known as Internet 2.

Northern Arizona University has broken ground on a $31-million facility for the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences on its Flagstaff campus. The 90,000-sf project will be sited in the Chemistry and Biological Sciences Building and will house 18 teaching laboratories, 18 research laboratories, and support space. Designed by Carter Burgess of Phoenix, the facility is being constructed by Holder Construction of Atlanta and is slated for completion in November 2006.

The Rochester Institute of Technology is constructing the 35,000-sf Center for Bioscience and Technology (CBET) in Rochester, N.Y. Slated for completion by fall 2006, the $14-million academic facility will house laboratories, classrooms, and equipment for programs in bioinformatics, biotechnology, forensics, and graduate studies.

Clemson University is planning to construct a $6-million incubator facility in Pendleton, S.C. Sited in the Clemson Research Park, the 40,000-sf Innovation Center will be located adjacent to Clemson's Advanced Materials Research Laboratory. Additionally, Clemson has allotted $10.3 million in funding to create a research campus for the Clemson University Restoration Institute (CURI) in North Charleston on the former Charleston Naval Base.

Baylor College of Medicine celebrated the groundbreaking of the Margaret M. Alkek Building for Biomedical Research in Houston on Sept. 16, 2005. The 203,000-gsf, eight-story facility will feature flexible lab and office space designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in areas including cardiovascular sciences, diabetes, cancer, pharmacogenomics, imaging, informatics, and proteomics. Completion is expected in May 2007.

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) opened its new $145-million College of Medicine Research Building in September 2005. Providing state-of-the-art laboratories for biomedical researchers, the 325,000-sf building represents a 15 percent increase in UIC's total research space. The eight-story facility will bring together researchers in the fields of neuroscience, cardiovascular disease, cancer, women's health, and immunology/transplantation.

The University of Virginia Health System broke ground in September 2005 on a $70.7-million medical building on its Charlottesville campus. The 102,000-sf facility will accommodate research on vaccine therapy, immunology, infectious diseases, cancer, and biotechnology. The building will house 240 scientists working in 60 research teams.

The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) opened its new $33-million, 110,000-sf science facility in fall 2005. Part of the UMD College of Science and Engineering, the three-story building is comprised of a teaching wing and a research wing, and houses computer and wet labs, offices, and study space for chemistry and biology. Designed by architect Ken Kornberg of Palo Alto, Calif., the facility features an open-lab layout to foster collaboration.