Higher Education

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 & 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.

Johns Hopkins University has plans to house The Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences (IBBS) in the John G. Rangos Sr. Building, the first building to be built at the new life sciences Science + Technology Park at Johns Hopkins, which broke ground April 17, 2006. The Park is an $800-million development directed by East Baltimore Development Inc. that will include housing, retail, and other businesses and services.

Wake Forest University has dedicated its new $72-million Biotechnology Research Facility 1 (BRF1), the sixth building at the Piedmont Triad Research Park which is located on 240 acres in downtown Winston-Salem, N.C. The University's Institute for Regenerative Medicine along with the Lipid Sciences Research Group will both be housed in offices and labs in the five-story, 187,000-sf structure, which commenced construction a little over two years ago. Architect for the project was O'Brien Atkins; Shelco Inc. was the builder.

Florida Gulf Coast University has selected Kraft Construction of Naples, Fl., to build the U.A. Whittaker School of Engineering. Groundbreaking for the three-story facility is scheduled for fall 2006. It will provide 50,000- to 70,000 sf of space for offices, lab space, and classrooms. Construction of the $15-million building should begin in early 2007 with completion in 2008.

The City of Buffalo dedicated the $131-million Buffalo Life Sciences Complex on June 2, 2006. Designed by Francis Cauffman Foley Hoffmann Architects, the 290,000-sf complex consists of two adjoined four- and five-story buildings built on the edge of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham is initiating the second phase of its Richard C. and Annette N. Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building project. Phase two will cost approximately $120 million and will add 30,000-sf of research space, including the $7.89-million fit-out of the sixth and eleventh floors to house immunological and neuroscientific research, including the expansion of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute. The contractor is Argo Construction.