The University of California, Davis is nearing completion of its new $54.5 million Center for the Arts. The 106,370-sf facility will include a multilevel hall to seat up to 1,800; attic area and catwalks; entrance canopy; lobby; and an attached 250-seat studio theater.
McCormick Theological Seminary has recently completed renovations to two buildings that provide graduate student housing. Knight Advanced Technology of Chicago provided architectural, mechanical, electrical design, and construction administration services for the project--a seven-story, 38,000-sf apartment tower built in the late 1960s, and a four-story, 22,000-sf apartment building built in the late 1920s.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's new medical research building, designed by Lord Aeck & Sargent of Atlanta, will have a nontraditional design, placing desks near windows to take advantage of natural light, and using interior walls for utilities. Newcomb & Boyd of Atlanta is providing mechanical and electrical engineering for the new structure, ensuring ready access to the utilities in the building.
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.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology plans to break ground in Cambridge on the $350-million McGovern Institute for Brain Research later in 2001. Other area institutions with similar facilities include McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., which will open a $10-million brain research wing, and the University of Massachusetts Medical Center's newly-opened $12-million Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute located at Worcester State Hospital in Worcester.
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 National Museum of the American Indian will be entering the second phase of construction with completion estimated for 2004. A $140 million contract for foundation, structure, shell interior and landscaping will be awarded by the Smithsonian Institution, and construction is expected to begin in June 2001. Phase one included site preparation at the National Mall location, which cost approximately $4 million. The museum will house more than 800,000 artifacts.
The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering will be housing incoming students this fall in modular classroom and dormitory buildings. Three of the four building intended to accommodate these students, totaling nearly 300,000 sf, are in the first phase of construction and are slated for completion in early 2002. The remaining building will be ready for occupancy in April 2002, with four additional buildings to be completed as needed to reach Olin's anticipated full enrollment of 600-650 students.
Sarah Lawrence College has selected Daedalus Projects Inc. of Boston as construction project manager for the new 65,000-sf Heinbold Visual Arts Center in Bronxville, N.Y.
Harvard Medical School has completed a phased renovation of facilities for the Department of Cell Biology. Architectural Resources Cambridge, based in Cambridge, Mass., planned the project which includes biological research labs and facilities for video microscopy, micro-injection, tissue culture, and histology, as well as a frog research facility and high purity water treatment system. A frog breeding colony is accommodated in a new skylighted penthouse.
The National Cathedral School began construction of a 99,000-sf underground athletic center in November 2000. The $17.5 million facility will be located underneath a soccer field and is expected to open in February of 2002. Working with the restriction that no more than 14 percent of the 57-acre National Cathedral site may be developed, the center will be accessed via a small stone pavilion containing a three-story atrium and a 40-foot freestanding climbing wall.
San Jose State University is collaborating with the city of San Jose to build the Martin Luther King Jr. Library. Located in downtown San Jose, the 475,000-sf, $177.5 million building will provide needed additional space for both the college and the city that neither could have funded independently. The city is providing $70 million of the cost of the eight-story building, with SJSU supplying $5 million. $86 million will come from a California State University system capital project fund.
A two-year, $75.7 million renovation of the National Archives Building is under way, with 90 percent estimated to reach completion by July 1, 2003. Grunley Construction of Rockville, Md., has been contracted to renovate 300,000 sf of public and office space, including the rotunda, staircase, roof, installation of an elevator, and construction of a $7 million privately funded 294-seat theater.
San Diego State University is planning to break ground on a new 14-megawatt energy cogeneration plant in conjunction with a campuswide conservation effort. Design of the $20 million facility will is scheduled to begin in May 2001 with construction beginning in summer. Expected to be online by summer of 2002, the plant is a long-term solution to rising energy costs. Replacing the existing 3-megawatt cogeneration plant that supplies only a third of the university's energy, the new plant will generate enough electricity for the entire campus.
Sonoma State University at Rohnert Park has completed construction of the Environmental Technology Center, a 2,230-sf student environmental science building. Built by the Sacramento, Calif. office of McCarthy, the facility will serve as a public demonstration project and features sustainable, state-of-the-art, energy efficient architecture and design. To reduce chemical agents and improve concrete density, an experimental concrete mix was used that contains high concentrations of industrial by-products fly ash and rice hull ash.
