Drexel University's new Laurence A. Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship in Technology, scheduled to open in fall 2001, is being designed by IA/Interspace. The center will house a cybercafe and a multi-purpose presentation room for student presentations of business plans to potential investors. Drexel has contracted with the Port of Technology in nearby University City to run the Baiada Center.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s new National Center for Supercomputing Applications Advanced Computation Building Addition was recently completed by Holabird & Root of Chicago. The 17,000-sf facility features a 90 x 90-ft column-free space that can accommodate continually changing arrangements of hardware. The construction of the exterior allows the room to expand incrementally without the addition of walls or columns inside the space, while operating at full capacity.
Kyonggi University has selected Cannon Design of Boston to design its new 50,000-sf Teleconferencing Auditorium, a 1,300-seat facility that will serve as both the campus hub for the information technology infrastructure and as an auditorium for special events. The “green” building will be submerged into landscaped terraces to increase energy efficiency, and will be constructed of recycled materials and use energy captured by solar collectors mounted on adjacent buildings and within the garden landscape.
Meredith College has a new $20 million, 80,000-sf collaborative science building under construction. Designed by BJLAS Architecture and built by Rogers Builders of Charlotte, N.C., the facility will promote interaction by bringing together the various science subspecialties, rather than isolating them by floor. The most expensive lab space -- that used by the departments of chemistry and biology -- will be grouped together. Four to six students will work together at lab "islands." Small group study alcoves will be located throughout the structure.
The University of Texas at San Antonio is designing a new four-story academic building—Academic Building III—a 190,000-sf facility for the Department of English, Classics and Philosophy; the College of Education and Human Development; and the Department of Communications. The proposed $53-million structure will house multipurpose classrooms, lecture halls, teaching labs, and administrative offices.
Howard University dedicated its new $27-million Louis Stokes Health Sciences Library in mid-November 2001. Washington, D.C.-based Hillier designed the four-story, 80,000-sf library, which can seat up to 615 people. The facility can accommodate as many as 400,000 volumes, periodicals, and digitally formatted material. The library features a telemedicine room, where students can make diagnoses from their workstations.
The University of Pennsylvania Riverview Campus master plan was completed in April 2001 by Cambridge, Mass.-based Tsoi/Kobus & Associates. The 20-acre Philadelphia Civic Center site will be transformed into a mixed-use healthcare and research center serving the needs of the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania.
The University of California, San Francisco's new 43-acre research campus at Mission Bay is under construction. Phase one includes a 385,000-sf research building; a 165,000-sf center for human genetics, developmental biology, and developmental neuroscience; and a campus community center sporting food courts, a health club and pool, and a library'all scheduled to open by 2003. The developer of the huge project is Catellus.
University of Kentucky-Lexington's new Biomedical/Biological Sciences Research Building is currently in the schematic design phase. The 200,000-sf building is scheduled for occupancy in 2004. HERA, Inc., of St. Louis, is providing lab planning, programming, and design services for the facility. A.M. Kinney, of Cincinnati, is the prime architect and engineer, and Philadelphia-based Venturi Scott Brown Associates is the design architect.
Western Michigan University's new College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Research Building has been designed and engineered by HarleyEllis of Southfield, Mich. in collaboration with design consultant Rossetti Architects of Birmingham, Mich. It houses teaching, lab, and support spaces for the College's six departments. The $56-million, 350,000-sf facility is situated within the University's newly developed Business-Technology Research Park in Kalamazoo. The building is designed with three wings radiating from a central 'hub' that houses lecture halls and common areas.
Drew University commissioned Philadelphia-based A/E firm, Ewing Cole Cherry Brott to provide programming and schematic design services for the renovation and expansion of Seminary Hall, built in 1898. The building is the focal point of the Theological School. By renovating the existing structure and constructing a new addition, the new building program totaling 34,000 sf will include provisions for accessibility throughout the building, a large chapel space, seminar rooms, additional classrooms, preaching space, faculty offices, study/commuter lounge, and commons area.
The University of Pennsylvania has selected construction management firm R.M. Shoemaker Co. of West Conshohocken, Pa., to build Steinhardt Hall, the new Hillel Jewish Student Life Center on the campus of the University. Groundbreaking was scheduled for October 2001. The three-story, 35,000-sf facility will provide a new academic, cultural, and religious complex for the more than 6,000 Jewish students at the University. It will contain a kosher kitchen and 386-seat kosher dining room, a 320-seat auditorium, and a 174-seat Beit Midrash.
The University of North Carolina-Charlotte has selected Perkins & Will to design a $23.1 million, 70,000-sf graduate research complex at the new Charlotte Institute for Technology Innovation; construction is scheduled to begin in fall 2002. A $26.1 million, 103,000-sf general classroom facility, designed by LS3P, will also commence construction at the same time.
Strayer University has plans to expand and relocate its 1,200-student Arlington campus to a planned three-story building located on top of the Court House Metro station. The university will occupy the top two floors (30,000 sf) of the 54,000-sf building. The project, which is set to open in fall of 2002, is under development by the Arlington-based Jenco Group. Construction is expected to get under way in fall 2001.
The University of North Carolina-Charlotte began construction in July 2001 on a new 184,000-sf, $33.2-million Science and Technology building, part of a seven-building expansion of the 1.2 million-sf campus to a total of 2 million sf. At build-out, enrollment is expected to increase from the current 17,000 students to 25,000 students.
