Higher Education

Charles Sturt University began construction on the Stage 2A academic facility in June of 2019 in Port Macquarie, Australia. Designed by BVN Architecture, the AUD$40 million building will provide flexible instructional spaces, a laboratory, a student kitchen, meeting and breakout rooms, and an event venue. Enabling the university to support an additional 1,800 students, the two-story structure will be linked to the existing campus by a path with a timber bridge from the adjacent nature reserve.

The University of Saskatchewan is building the $45 million Merlis Belsher Place in Saskatoon, Canada. The multi-sport facility will include a community ice rink, a gymnasium with two full-size basketball courts, locker rooms, lounges, therapy rooms, and a 2,500-seat hockey bowl with room for an additional 1,000 fans. The project will feature the $2 million Ron and Jane Graham Sport Science and Health Centre, a performance research facility supporting athlete conditioning, education, nutrition, injury prevention, and recovery.

Colorado State University broke ground in July of 2019 on the $22 million Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases in Fort Collins. Designed by Merrick & Company and BSA LifeStructures, the 41,000-sf research facility will house the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology. The project will provide offices, support space, and BSL-2 labs for the detection and study of arthropod-borne and infectious diseases.

Texas A&M University is addressing the rising demand for engineers by transforming a traditional 46-year-old academic building into a state-of-the-art facility, where technology is not just an aid, but a driver. The Zachry Engineering Education Complex, on the College Station campus, is the cornerstone of Texas A&M’s ambitious “25 by 25” initiative—a plan to enroll 25,000 engineering students by 2025.

Eastern Michigan University is engaged in a $40 million renovation of Sill Hall in Ypsilanti. Featuring highly adaptable infrastructure for optimal flexibility, the $40 million project will create sophisticated laboratories and experiential learning environments for the College of Engineering and Technology.

Creighton University began construction in July of 2019 on a $100 million health sciences campus in midtown Phoenix. Located at Park Central, the 180,000-sf facility will accommodate programs in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physician assistance, emergency services, and occupational and physical therapy. The project team includes architect Butler Design Group, general contractor Okland Construction, and developer Plaza Companies.

Kenyon College broke ground in July of 2019 on the West Quad complex in Gambier, Ohio. Designed by GUND Partnership, the project includes construction of Kenyon Commons, a collaborative library and learning facility that will feature two sandbox spaces for the exploration of innovative technologies and teaching methods.

The University of Illinois at Chicago is planning to build the $96 million Computing, Design, Research and Learning Center. Designed by Booth Hansen to support new instructional paradigms, the 168,000-sf facility will provide auditoria, lecture halls, dry research labs, interdisciplinary student design space, faculty and staff offices, and collaboration areas. The Department of Computer Science will be housed in the building, which will feature flexible classrooms comprised of modules that can be easily adapted to accommodate diverse class sizes and types.

Southwest Community College is building a $20 million health sciences building in Sylva, N.C. Designed by LS3P, the 55,000-sf facility will accommodate programs including nursing, occupational therapy, emergency medical science, medical sonography, surgical technology, opticianry, radiology, and speech-language pathology. The collaborative three-story building will provide technology-rich simulation training suites, teaching labs, classrooms, offices, and support spaces.

The term “Fourth Industrial Revolution” (4IR) was coined in 2016 by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, to describe the exponential transformation society and commerce are experiencing due to converging breakthroughs in numerous fields, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, the internet of things (IoT), and quantum computing. While this latest advancement is to some degree an extension of the third revolution (aka: The Digital Revolution), 4IR is considered a new era because of the unprecedented speed, scope, and systems impact of the coming changes. It is evolving at an exponential rate rather than a linear one and is expected to disrupt entire systems of production, management, transportation, and governance on a global scale. In response, a new breed of interdisciplinary research facility is emerging, as academic institutions try to anticipate training students for the unforeseen demands of the 4IR.

Purdue University will begin construction in spring of 2020 on the $140 million Gateway Complex in West Lafayette, Ind. Designed by BSA LifeStructures and Ennead Architects, the multidisciplinary project will provide instructional labs, design studios, collaboration spaces, and active learning environments for the College of Engineering and the Purdue Polytechnic Institute.

The University of Manitoba opened the $44.5 million Smartpark Innovation Hub in Winnipeg in June of 2019. Designed by Cibinel Architecture to foster collaborative partnerships between industry, academia, and government, the 75,000-sf facility provides laboratories, prototyping suites, multimedia training classrooms, conference rooms, a business incubator, and rentable space for companies.

The University of Windsor celebrated the opening of the CAD$30 million Essex Centre of Research (CORe) in June of 2019 in Windsor, Ontario. Designed by NORR and Hariri Pontarini Architects, the 46,000-sf facility was constructed as an addition to Essex Hall and provides collaborative wet and dry laboratories for the study of advanced materials, transitional health, and medical physics.

Texas A&M University opened the $104 million Medical Research and Education Building II (MREB II) in June of 2019 in Bryan, Texas. Designed by Flad Architects and OMNIPLAN, the 155,077-sf project comprises a 48,200-sf vertical expansion to the existing Medical Research and Education Building (MREB I) and a 122,800-sf addition, enabling the College of Medicine's basic science departments to be collocated in a single campus.

Vermeulens has released its market outlook report for the first quarter of 2019. Key points include: