Saint Vincent College is building a new facility to house the Alex G. McKenna School of Business, Economics and Government on its campus in Latrobe, Pa. Designed by Pittsburgh-based architectural firm Tasso Katselas Associates, the $3.2 million, 20,000-sf project involves the renovation of four floors in Aurelius Hall. Completion is expected in spring of 2005.
Virginia Tech University is working with Emerson’s Network Power unit to develop a new state-of-the-art supercomputing facility. Emerson, based in St. Louis, designed and installed a cooling system for the supercomputer that does not occupy needed floor space. The supercomputer consists of a cluster of 1,100 personal computers.
Arizona State University East is building a new 27,000-sf student union on its Mesa campus. Housing student life programs, multipurpose meeting space, study areas, dining facilities, workspace for student organizations, a campus bookstore, and a game room, the building is slated for completion in August 2004. The $5.4 million project was designed by Gould Evans Associates of Phoenix. The general contractor is Turner Construction of Phoenix.
The University of Kansas Medical Center recently broke ground on its $56 million Biomedical Research Center in Kansas City, Kan. Part of a $125 million campus development initiative, the 205,000-sf center will focus on neuroscience, genomics, cancer research, and human reproductive biology.
Guangzhou University in China has selected Watertown, Mass.-based Sasaki Associates to design Phase I of a $4 billion expansion. The project is comprised of forty million square feet on a 1,000-acre site.
The National Academy of Sciences is planning to open the Marian Koshland Science Museum in Washington D.C. by April of 2004. The $30 million, 6,000-sf facility will focus on bringing scientific research closer to the public. Opening exhibits at the new museum will focus on global warming and DNA.
Nueces County is renovating its historic 1914 courthouse facility to create a 78,000-sf science and technology museum in Corpus Christi, Texas. The architect for the $20 million project is Sween McGloin of Corpus Christi, with Stoddard Construction Co. as general contractor. The first phase is slated for completion in two years.
SUNY Albany is working with International Sematech to create an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) Resist Test Center at Albany Nanotech. Slated for completion in April 2004, the center will be housed in the NanoFab II facility which is currently under construction. The center’s nine employees will test a photosensitive chemical called resist that can transfer a circuit pattern onto a semiconductor wafer. Sematech’s $403 million computer chip research center is also located at Albany Nanotech.
NASA/Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., has awarded the University of California, Santa Cruz a $330 million, ten-year contract to manage the development of a University Affiliated Research Center. As the first such development established by the space agency, the center will focus on interdisciplinary research in information technology, astrobiology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. NASA is also creating a 200-acre research and education park at Moffett Federal Airfield.
MIT has completed construction of the $300-million, 713,000-sf Ray and Maria Stata Center in Cambridge, Mass. Housing flexible research facilities, high-technology classrooms, fitness facilities, an auditorium, a child-care center, and underground parking, the nine-story center will also accommodate the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information Decision Systems, and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Occupancy is slated to begin in January 2004.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute opened the Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center on Sept. 15, 2003. The center is one of six Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers designated by the National Science Foundation. The facility houses an atomic force microscope and equipment for studying nanotubes.
Union College is creating housing for 230 students by renovating an inn recently purchased by the liberal arts and engineering college in Schenectady, N.Y. Funded by an issue of $15-million in bonds, the renovation will include repairs to the exterior, roof, fire protection, and HVAC. A new study area, entryway, fitness center, and meeting rooms will be constructed. The renovation is slated for completion in fall 2004.
Baylor University has completed its $13.2 million multi-use facility that will serve as the new home for the university’s Information Technology Services Group. Sited on Baylor’s Dallas campus, the 400,000-sf design/build project houses office and restaurant space as well as structured parking for 1,195 cars. The contractor for the project was McCarthy, who also recently broke ground on a new 1,170-car, 360,000-sf design/build parking structure on Baylor’s Waco campus. Budgeted at $9.6 million, the facility will be completed in summer 2004.
The University of Central Florida’s Wayne Densch Sports Center has recently been completed by Clancy & Theys Construction in Orlando, Fla. The 44,000-sf training facility, a one-story building modeled after an early 1920’s field house, features a sports medical center and strength and conditioning room accessible to all UCF student athletes. The center also houses offices for UCF’s football team.
The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has selected Boston-based Shepley Bullfinch Richardson and Abbott to design its new 350,000-sf cardiovascular center. The center will accommodate 20 intensive care beds, six operating rooms, five cardiac catheterization labs, five electrophysiology labs, two interventional radiology operating rooms, 36 outpatient exam rooms, and a non-invasive testing suite. Construction will begin in fall 2003 with completion in spring 2007.
