Higher Education

Louisiana State University will open the $18 million Center for River Studies in Baton Rouge in February of 2018. Located on the Water Campus, the 45,500-sf facility will be a comprehensive, integrated physical modeling center that will serve both as a research hub for study of the lower Mississippi River and as an educational facility. Created in partnership with the Coastal Protection Restoration Authority, the facility was designed by Mougeot Architecture and built by Stuart & Co.

The University of Arkansas began construction in December of 2017 on the Stadium Drive Residence Halls in Fayetteville. Designed by Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Modus Studio, Mackey Mitchell Architects, and OLIN, the 202,000-sf, 708-bed facility will be the nation's first large-scale cross-laminated timber (CLT) dormitory campus. The $79 million living and learning community will support interactive, collaborative programs in architecture, design, English, and the arts.

Olympic College opened the $46.5 million College Instruction Center in January of 2018 in Bremerton, Wash. Designed by Schacht Aslani Architects to support programs in health sciences and the arts, the 70,000-sf facility features a 276-seat theater with movable walls that can accommodate lectures, performances, and events.

Michigan State University is constructing the $60 million Business Pavilion in East Lansing. Accommodating programs for the Eli Broad College of Business, the three-story, 100,000-sf facility will feature flexible classrooms, teaching labs, a glass-walled atrium, and an expanded career center to serve students, recruiters, and corporate partners. With teaching and learning spaces designed to support a new curriculum, the project will create an academic ecosystem that uses technology and collaborative spaces to train future business leaders.

The University of Cambridge is planning to construct the £300 million Cavendish III Laboratory in the United Kingdom. Designed by Jestico + Whiles with Ramboll as engineering consultant, the facility will provide the department of physics with advanced research facilities including cleanrooms, cryostat halls, microscopy suites, and laser and optical labs. A basement level with sophisticated vibration mitigation technologies will accommodate sensitive instrumentation.

D'Youville College is planning to build a $20 million health professions hub in Buffalo, N.Y. The three-story, 46,000-sf facility will provide a community clinic, classrooms, a virtual learning center, conference rooms, and a two-story, 200-seat amphitheater. Supporting the delivery of interdisciplinary, team-based care, the project will be the first clinic in the nation to include all the health professions in a single location.

Indiana University opened the $40 million Luddy Hall in Bloomington in January of 2018. Designed by RATIO Architects and Pelli Clarke Pelli, the collaborative teaching and research facility provides the School of Informatics and Computing with labs, classrooms, faculty and staff offices, conference rooms, a café, an auditorium, and space for student services. Housing the Intelligent Systems Engineering department, the four-story, 125,000-sf building also includes a 1,500-sf fabrication lab and a 3,500-sf innovation center.

The University of Northern Colorado is building the $73.6 million Campus Commons in Greeley. Providing offices for student services and space for UNC's world-class arts programs, the collaborative 114,000-sf facility will include a 600-seat performance hall, a 400-seat multiuse auditorium, an art gallery, a ticketing office, and a café. Ground was broken on the project in fall of 2016 and completion is expected in fall of 2018. LEED Gold sustainable design certification will be sought for the facility.

California State University, San Bernardino broke ground on the $55 million Center for Global Innovation building in December of 2017. Serving as the core campus centerpiece, the three-story, 71,000-sf facility will feature 24 collaborative learning classrooms, reconfigurable multipurpose rooms, and casual study lounges.

Durham University began construction in December of 2017 on the £40 million Centre for Teaching and Learning in the United Kingdom. Located on the Lower Mountjoy campus, the project will provide lecture halls, instructional rooms, teaching labs, and dining facilities. The building will also feature a sophisticated distance-learning classroom enabling students to participate in courses offered by peer institutions around the world in real time. Completion is expected in September of 2019.

Banner University Medical Center opened its $100 million outpatient center in Tucson in December of 2017. Designed to optimize accessibility and convenience, the three-story, 208,000-sf facility accommodates multiple disciplines on each floor, enabling patients to see several physicians on a single visit. The project also offers diagnostic labs, imaging suites, and spacious 750-sf operating rooms to enable medical students to view procedures. Ground was broken on the project in May of 2016.

Michigan State University is planning a $35 million expansion of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) in East Lansing. Space for a new spectrometer detector will be constructed, as well as an isotope harvesting building. Civil construction of the $730 million, 227,000-sf FRIB reached substantial completion in December of 2017, with installation of instrumentation ongoing until early 2021. 

Techtronic Industries, a manufacturer of power tools and construction equipment, is planning to build a 370,000-sf innovation center in Piercetown, S.C. Slated for occupancy in early 2019, the four-story project will provide corporate offices and engineering suites. An outdoor research and development lab for product testing in different weather conditions is currently under construction at the site and will reach completion in February of 2018.

The University of Central Florida and Valencia College are partnering with Creative Village Development to create a 68-acre mixed-use campus in downtown Orlando. The project includes:

1. Space Planning and Management Software for the 21st Century Workplace
2. Rodent Cage Technology Evolves Beyond the Simple Holding Vessel
3. The Future of Space is Flexible and People Focused
4. Centralized Research Support Facility Reaping Significant Benefits
5. Eli Lilly Employs Shared Space and Innovative Infrastructure 
6. The Gold Standard of Maker Space at MIT
7. The Future of Research Facility Design
8. Virtual and Augmented Reality are Reinventing Medical Education
9. Unique Survey Tools that Inform Design and Utilization of Academic Medical Campuses
10. Superlabs Drive Collaboration, Flexibility, and Space Efficiency in Academic Sciences