UNIVERSITY SECTOR GIANTS: Collaboration, creativity, technology—hallmarks of today’s campus facilities

The State University of New York at Buffalo’s 628,000-sf, $375 million medical center, which is scheduled to open in August 2017, is the single largest medical education building under construction in the U.S.

University officials are hardly being coy about their intent to use this facility (which was designed by HOK) as bait to attract more than 100 physician-scientists and medical specialists, to say nothing of the 100 students who are expected to enroll.

TOP UNIVERSITY ARCHITECTURE FIRMS

2014 University Revenue ($)
1. Gensler $71,930,000
2. CannonDesign $65,000,000
3. Perkins+Will $46,920,000
4. Stantec $45,858,669
5. EYP $40,879,189

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TOP UNIVERSITY ENGINEERING FIRMS

2014 University Revenue ($)
1. AECOM $138,154,000
2. Jacobs $32,915,000
3. Affiliated Engineers $23,519,000
4. Arup $17,041,932
5. Vanderweil Engineers $16,957,900

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TOP UNIVERSITY CONSTRUCTION FIRMS

2014 University Revenue ($)
1. Turner Construction $918,795,390
2. Whiting-Turner $843,873,354
3. Skanska USA $512,615,412
4. PCL Construction $436,248,090
5. Messer Construction $429,554,529

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Ohio State University has invested more than $1 billion in new healthcare and research facilities that are being used to attract physicians and researchers to its campus in Columbus. The university is also spending $400 million on residence halls to support its new requirement that all students live on campus through sophomore year, says Kyle Rooney, Vice President/General Manager for Turner Construction in Central and Southern Ohio market.

At a time when competition for the cream of the student/faculty crop is intensifying, colleges and universities must recognize that students and parents are coming to expect an education environment that foments collaboration, says Tom McDuffie, AIA, RIBA, Group Vice President–Global Buildings at Jacobs. That’s resulting in larger research “neighborhoods” to accommodate “hoteling” benches and desks for undergrads, he says.

Institutions of higher learning are placing greater emphasis in their construction and renovation plans on unstructured spaces that encourage transformational learning: collaboration, creative thinking, and technology use, according to executives with construction firm Barton Malow: Vice Presidents Todd Ketola and David Price, and Senior Vice President Robert D. Grottenthaler, PE, LEED AP.

Bradley Lukanic, AIA, LEED AP, Executive Director–Education at CannonDesign, says, “The changing student profile and evolving demographics of traditional college and university students are driving institutions to adapt by creating spaces that foster learning paradigms and collaboration for tomorrow’s leaders.” Lukanic sees an “acute focus on learning pedagogies” intertwined with “a framework of social stewardship and enhancing the student experience” in the higher education sector.

The 62,000-sf Rees-Jones Hall at Texas Christian University, designed by Lukanic’s firm, is an incubator facility that fosters such a learning experience. A so-called “Idea Factory” on its second floor provides students with resources—mentors, 3D printers, mobile app developers, and so on—that can help them foster entrepreneurial ventures and develop product prototypes.

GETTING TOUGHER TO RAISE CAPITAL FOR PROJECTS

Private donors are providing $50 million for the SUNY Buffalo project; another $215 million is coming from bond financing. In this era of budgetary belt-tightening, colleges and universities, even public institutions, can no longer depend primarily on government largess for construction funding.

Texas lawmakers hadn’t approved tuition revenue bonds, known as TRBs, for university construction for nearly 10 years; that is, until last May, when the state legislature approved bills that appropriate $70 million (of a requested $190 million) for constructing a science and education innovation and research building at the University of Texas–Arlington.

Even so, three billion dollars in TRB funding remains on the table. That’s equivalent to about half of the $5.4 billion reflected in the University of Texas System’s six-year capital improvement plan, which encompasses 91 projects.

Jacobs’s McDuffie notes that the federal government, the single largest source of research funding for universities, has been cutting back. That reduction, along with rising construction costs, is forcing universities to become more efficient, build more economically, and partner more effectively with industry. “Technology platforms and increasing demands for scientific research—and the capacity to house specialty equipment—are driving evaluations of space,” he says.

McDuffie expects the higher education market to continue to grow, albeit in line with current trends demanding “smart strategies” around finances, the environment, and state-of-the-art facilities that create successful research and teaching environments.

Global reach, resilience in the collegiate sector

Globally, universities are also looking to build and renovate. In England, AECOM has been appointed master planner for the University of Cambridge’s extension to the northwest, the largest expansion in the university’s 806-year history.

Mairi Johnson, AECOM’s Global Education Sector Leader, says this 15 million-sf project will feature a mixed-use sustainable development of research and teaching facilities, affordable housing for students and staff, market housing, community facilities, and public open space.

Resilience is becoming an increasingly recognized factor in the construction of new campus buildings. SUNY Buffalo’s new medical center project started with a 30x36-foot mockup that was subjected to simulations of powerful rain and windstorms. Michael Drozdowski, Project Manager for construction manager Gilbane/LiRo, says that fewer than 10% of newly constructed buildings in the U.S. undergo that level of testing.

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