Higher Education

Union College broke ground in May of 2017 on a $100 million renovation and expansion of the Science and Engineering Center in Schenectady, N.Y. The project includes construction of a 24,000-sf addition and a complete renovation of the existing structure to create a 142,000-sf STEM complex accommodating programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Featuring a four-story light well, the interdisciplinary facility will provide collaborative teaching and research labs, classrooms, instrumentation suites, and faculty offices.

Oklahoma State University is building the $45 million Tandy Medical Academic Building at the OSU Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa. Designed by Dewberry, the 84,000-sf facility will provide advanced simulation training suites including an emergency room, an intensive care unit, a birthing suite, an operating room, and an ambulance bay.

The University of Delaware’s College of Health Sciences encourages businesses and the community to play an active role in the Health Sciences campus, with its focus on translational medicine and utilization of the next generation of classrooms. Kathleen Matt, dean of the College of Heath Sciences, describes these learning spaces as “not a classroom at all. It is interacting in unique ways, in all kinds of environments, that drives the learning process, it drives the outcomes, and it drives the changes.”

The four-story, 93,500- sf Harrell Medical Education Building at the University of Florida (UF) houses teaching and training facilities for the medical education and the physician assistant programs, bringing together a broad variety of program spaces to promote interaction between students and faculty. The design includes an academic tower acting as the iconic gateway feature of the Health Sciences Campus. The building culminates a 10-year commitment to create a new campus on the north side of the medical center.

Carnegie Mellon University is partnering with Tata Consultancy Services to create TCS Hall in Pittsburgh. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the 48,000-sf joint facility will provide research labs, academic and administrative offices, instructional space, an innovation courtyard, and a robotics area. TCS Hall will support collaborative research in artificial intelligence, automation, data analytics, cybersecurity, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.

McNeese State University is building the $41 million Health and Human Performance Complex in Lake Charles, La. Designed by Randy M. Goodloe and Crawford Architects, the 145,000-sf facility will provide six classrooms, 12 faculty offices, a teaching lab, and a sports training center. Ground was broken on the project in early 2017 with completion expected in June of 2018. The general contractor is Alfred Palma. 

Nebraska Wesleyan University broke ground in April of 2017 on the $27 million Duane W. Acklie Hall of Science in Lincoln. Housing the departments of biology, chemistry, and psychology, the three-story, 80,000-sf facility will provide collaborative classrooms, laboratories, study spaces, and a greenhouse. The project team includes The Clark Enersen Partners as architect of record with Celli-Flynn Brennan as design architect.

Utah State University broke ground in April of 2017 on the $45 million Life Sciences Building in Logan. Designed by VCBO Architects with Research Facilities Design (RFD) as laboratory design consultant, the 103,000-sf facility will provide 13 teaching labs, research labs, a lecture hall, and study spaces. The project will also house the Department of Biology. Completion is expected in January of 2019.

The University of Glasgow officially opened the £32 million Imaging Centre of Excellence in late March of 2017. Located at the South Glasgow Hospitals campus in Scotland, the facility features a 7-Tesla clinical MRI scanner to support advanced neurological and cardiovascular research. The building also houses neurosurgery operating suites and a biomedical business incubator called the Clinical Innovation Zone. The project was designed by BMJ Architects and built by BAM Construction.

Northwestern College broke ground in April of 2017 on a $24.5 million health and natural sciences center in Orange City, Iowa. Designed by Cannon Moss Brygger and HGA, the 61,000-sf facility will provide classrooms, labs, and offices for the departments of biology, chemistry, and nursing.

The University of Texas Medical Branch broke ground on the $90 million Health Education Building in Galveston in April of 2017. The five-story, 166,000-sf facility will support collaborative interprofessional education programs with large learning studios, technology-rich labs, flipped classrooms, and simulation training suites. The construction manager-at-risk for the project is Vaughn Construction. Occupancy is expected in spring of 2019.

The Sterling Chemistry Laboratory (SCL), located on Yale University’s Science Hill, is an iconic 157,800-gsf, three-story chemistry lab building designed by Delano & Aldrich and completed in 1923. The building structure of steel, reinforced concrete, and masonry, with a brick and brownstone exterior skin, remains intact, while the interior has been renovated to modernize the laboratory facilities and add 31,600 sf of space. The u-shaped building perimeter consists of a two-story head house at the south and three-story structures along the east and west. The primary focus of the SCL project is to provide cutting-edge teaching labs and associated support spaces within the footprint of the existing historic building, provide a much-needed roof replacement across the entire center area in the north and south, and provide a new HVAC system to support the science programs.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center officially broke ground in April of 2017 on the $119 million Balbach Global Center for Advanced Interprofessional Learning in Omaha. Serving as the headquarters for the Interprofessional Experiential Center for Enduring Learning (iEXCEL), the four-story, 191,884-sf facility will feature simulation suites and virtual immersive reality environments for medical training. The ground floor of the building will be occupied by the National Center for Health Security and Biopreparedness.

Stockton University is building the $33.2 million Unified Science Center 2 in Galloway, N.J. The three-story, 58,210-sf facility will house teaching and research labs, a vivarium, a gross anatomy lab, a multipurpose room, a greenhouse, and faculty offices. The $15.2 million, 37,720-sf Health Sciences Center is also under construction and will provide simulation suites, an exercise science lab, and space for the sustainability program. Both projects are slated for occupancy in 2018.

The University of Texas at San Antonio is planning to begin construction in early 2018 on the $95 million Science and Engineering Building. Designed by TreanorHL and Alamo Architects to promote interaction and collaboration, the multidisciplinary facility will provide active learning classrooms, teaching labs, and faculty offices to support STEM programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.