Higher Education

Southwestern College is building a $22-million project referred to as Education Village on  3.3 acres purchased from the Community Development Commission. The National City project is part of a collaboration of Southwestern and San Diego State University (SDSU) to provide lower level courses for students transferring from Southwestern to SDSU. The development will consist of two buildings totalling 72,000 sf. The 25,000-sf building will house the San Diego County Office of Education.

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is planning a new student housing project. Phase one, a $16-million, 500-bed complex, will be built in summer of 2002. Phase two consists of a $25-million, 750-room project. Phase three includes an additional 500 rooms. UTSA, San Antonio’s only major public university, hopes to change its status as primarily a commuter school with the new dormitory facilities. The University is currently engaged in an expansion totalling over $175 million in new construction, half of which is devoted to a new science building.

Montgomery College of Rockville has selected Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, Architecture & Engineering PC, a firm with local offices in Boston, to provide comprehensive master planning for the college’s Rockville, Takoma Park, and Germantown campuses.

The Law School Admissions Council (LSAT) will break ground on its new 85,000-sf headquarters in late summer of 2002. Located on seven company-owned acres in Newton, Penn., adjacent to its current 48,000-sf operations, the facility will feature 54 underground parking spaces. The majority of a proposed $20-million bond will fund the headquarters, which will be designed by Edison, N.J.-based architectural firm Rothe Johnson Fantacone. Construction will be completed within a year.

Georgia Tech has selected Holder Construction Co. and Hardin Construction Co. of Atlanta to build the new DuPree College of Management to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards as established by the U.S. Green Building Council. The 189,000-sf facility is part of Midtown's $180-million Technology Square Complex slated for completion in July of 2003. The cost of sustainable construction adds a minimum of 5 percent to traditional construction costs.

The University of Iowa, Iowa City has selected Boston-based Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, Architecture & Engineering PC in conjunction with OPN Architects of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to engineer restoration of the university's historic Old Capitol Building’s golden dome. The dome sustained extensive fire damage in November of 2001.

American University is building the Park Bethesda Apartments, a student housing complex at the site of the former National Institutes of Health offices in Bethesda. Planned as a luxury apartment complex, the upscale development now under construction will house approximately 730 graduate and law students in 258 units. The 305,000-sf complex, designed by architect R.A. Ponte & Associates, will include studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and two-story, three-bedroom units.

The University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) has proposed the construction of the University of Texas Sports Science Institute, a world-class, multi-disciplinary research center for sports science. In addition to UTHSC, the project would be sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at San Antonio. The San Antonio campus would emphasize education, research, medicine, and psychology as they relate to sports; and community wellness. The project is awaiting approval in May from the University of Texas Board of Regents.

Johns Hopkins University, located in Baltimore, plans to expand its Shady Grove satellite campus in Rockville with a 130,000-sf building, the third at the 35-acre site. The facility is to house classrooms, administrative offices, and computer labs, as well as outside tenants who work or partner with the University. Spaulding & Slye Colliers was selected by the University to develop the new structure. Future expansion at the site will also be planned by the company.

Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies will invest $10 million to renovate the Wachovia building in downtown Atlanta. The building will house the Center for Urban Policy Studies, the school's new nonprofit center, four research centers, and the economics and public administration departments upon completion.

The University of Maryland has selected D.C. architectural firm OP-X to design an addition to its Inn & Conference Center in Adelphi, Md., compliant with the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) program coordinated by the U.S. Green Building Council. Slated to begin construction in late spring of 2002 and reach completion in 2003, the 102,000-sf addition includes 6,000 sf of meeting space and 126 hotel rooms. Construction manager for the project is Bovis Lend Lease. 

The University of Texas Health Science Center has selected the team of Centex Construction Co. of Dallas and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio to provide construction management services for its new academic administration and student services building. Located on its San Antonio campus, the 60,000-sf building will house administrative staff, including the Health Science Center president. HKS of Dallas will provide architectural services for the facility, which will serve as a gateway to the campus as well as a focal point.

Austin Community College (ACC) broke ground in April on its new 146,000-sf Health Careers Building. The $29-million health sciences center will be located at ACC’s Eastview campus in East Austin and will house up to 600 students. The facility will be built in two phases. Phase One, with a budget of $17.2 million, will provide 89,000 sf of lab, classroom and office space for nursing, surgical technology, radiology and dental hygiene programs. Completion of Phase One is anticipated in fall of 2003.

The University of Texas Medical Branch is establishing a Galveston telehealth research center slated to open in late April. The SBC Foundation, part of SBC Communications, awarded the medical complex a $1-million donation. The facility is the first of its kind in the nation.

The University of San Diego  is nearing completion of the reinforcing steel work for the new Center for Science and Technology, performed by San Diego-based Pacific Coast Steel Inc. Three million pounds of rebar are required for the 150,000-sf, $47-million facility.