MIAMI—General contracting and construction management firm ANF Group, which is based in Davie, Fla., has been hired to work on a new theater arts building for the University of Miami (Fla.), which will be located at the school’s Coral Gables campus.

The 15,000-square-foot complex, designed by Mateu Architecture of Miami, will encompass two stories. In addition to the theater performance space itself, the new building will feature areas for concessions, wardrobe and dressing rooms, classrooms, student lounge, as well as various support and administration spaces. The design also calls for a 1,000-square-foot IT hub and data room to be built.

“We are very excited to have been selected to build the new Theater Arts building at UM, [which is] such a vibrant and diverse academic institution in the South Florida community,” Al Fernandez, president of ANF Group, said in a recent news release about his company’s working on the school theater. “We are honored to be working with one of America’s top universities on this extraordinary project.”

In an additional statement to School Construction News, Erick Cervantes, ANF Group’s assistant project manager, said that his firm faces the task of not disturbing the students and teachers who will continue to be milling about the campus on a daily basis during the construction of the new theater arts complex.

“Our team calls it the ‘good neighbor’ approach,” Cervantes said. “Working around class schedules, keeping noise to a minimum, and having minimal presence on campus is all part of our effort to be as least disruptive as possible. It’s rewarding to know that we are building a project that will have a positive impact on hundreds of students, professors, and educators for years to come.”

The University of Miami, which is an entirely private college, hosts over 17,000 students, with some 5,000 being educated at the Coral Gables campus alone. The college has a dozen schools for both its undergraduate and graduate students pursuing specialties in well over 300 various disciplines.

ANF Group, which was founded in 1981, has performed other educational construction work in the Sunshine State that includes the $50 million Nova Southeastern University Center for Collaborative Research Facility in Davie, Florida. The firm provides services in such specialties as preconstruction, construction management, general contracting, development, and design-build services throughout South Florida.

Mateu Architecture was founded by Roney J. Mateu and is recognized around Florida for its various design work. Mateu Architecture was named “Firm of the Year” by the Florida Association of the American Institute of Architects in 2014.

The theater project at the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus is now in the preconstruction phase. It is anticipated to get underway this fall, with a projected completion date sometime in the summer of 2023.

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CORAL GABLES, Fla.—A new village for student living is coming to the University of Miami in Coral Gables after construction delays related to the covid-19 pandemic. Construction on the Centennial Village was first announced in January 2019 and was ongoing until the shutdown of March 2020.

But 2022 appears to be the year the residential complex will finally be realized at the Florida college. In the months ahead, the existing Hecht Residential College is due for a date with the wrecking ball to make more room for Centennial Village, which will be home to hundreds of first-year Miami students.

During the work stoppage necessitated by the pandemic, officials from the University of Miami continued to confer with the project architects to audit the work undertaken thus far, as well as look ahead to what might be done differently moving forward.

Accordingly, the initial plan was for a complex with four residential colleges that could serve as home to 1,700 first-year students. The revised blueprints will add a fifth residential college, thereby upping the number of students who can live at the complex to over 2,000.

Architecture firms VMDO Architects and Zyscovich Architects, both of Coral Gables, are working in tandem with Gryon LLC, who is providing preconstruction services on the $335 million project. Other advisers on the project include Brailsford & Dunlavey. Coastal Construction will oversee certain aspects of both demolition and construction as well.

In a statement to School Construction News, VMDO Principal Joe Atkins added the following:

“The architectural expression of Centennial Village draws inspiration from the rich modernism of campus, the local and international style and culture of Miami, and the institutional aspiration of hemispheric leadership.”

“We are delighted to resume progress toward completion of our multi-year plan to modernize our housing on campus,” Jacqueline A. Travisano, executive vice president for business and finance and chief operating officer at the university, said in a recent statement. “When the project was paused, our team used that time to re-evaluate our initial plan and make some enhancements to its scope and timeline.”

According to the revised project schedule, the Hecht Residential College will close by May, with the Stanford Residential College also signing off for the final time by May 2024. A few months later, Centennial Village’s first two residential colleges will be ready for residents, who will enjoy a new dining commons. The final three colleges are now envisioned to be finished in time for the fall of 2026—for the university’s centennial.

“Reordering the phases of the project is beneficial for many reasons,” Jessica Brumley, vice president for facilities operations and planning, said in a recent statement. “For example, the revised sequence brings a new dining hall to resident students two years earlier than anticipated and creates a more compact construction site to limit the disruption on the surrounding campus area.”

Centennial Village is the second phase of the university’s plan to re-envision its campus not only for its upcoming centennial, but beyond. Collectively, the architects and contractors are working toward LEED Gold Certification on the residence halls.

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CORAL GABLES, Fla.—Skanska, a global construction and development firm, has announced it was selected to lead construction on the new Frost Institute of Chemistry and Molecular Science for the University of Miami that will be part of the institution’s main campus in Coral Gables.

The approximately 90,000-square-foot project includes imaging and science research laboratories, administrative and research offices, a lecture hall, a multipurpose gathering space, and associated building support spaces. The project will also include the construction of the associated site work and underground utilities.

Designed by architecture firm Harvard Jolly Architecture, the project is expected to break ground by the end of the year and is slated for completion in summer 2022. The new facility will also be seeking to achieve a minimum of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Certification, joining other Skanska built projects including the Mercedes-Benz U.S Headquarters and Town of Andover, Bancroft Elementary School.

“Skanska is honored to have been entrusted once again by the University of Miami with this new assignment,” said Michael C. Brown, executive vice president and general manager of Skanska’s Florida building operations. “As a company, we continue to specialize and focus on developing research and academic buildings for universities throughout Florida that will have a positive impact in their local communities and beyond through their work and studies.”

The institute will bring together scientists from several molecular-based disciplines to do collaborative research work, using approaches relying on molecular design, discovery, and development.

This will be Skanska’s second project on behalf of the University of Miami, having completed the Patricia Louise Frost Music Studios, which was selected as Project of the Year for the Urban Land Institute’s Vision Awards, in 2015. Skanska is currently working on the University of South Florida’s (USF) Research Park Mixed Use Lab & Office project in Tampa and recently delivered the USF Health’s Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute in downtown Tampa.

Skanska is headquartered in New York City, with offices in 28 metro areas with 7,900 employees nationwide. Harvard Jolly Architecture was founded in 1938 and is one of the largest firms in Florida—offering services in architecture, interior design and landscape architecture.

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CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The University of Miami (UM) has earned a Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) silver rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in 2017. This rating was awarded for the school’s many achievements in the area of sustainability. The STARS rating is a self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their own sustainability measures and performance, and serves to encourage sustainability in higher-ed schools across the board.

UM has been committed to sustainability for more than 10 years, with a number of buildings on campus earning LEED certification status as well as a number of formal pledges and commitments to sustainability since 2007. Donna E. Shalala, president of UM, signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) in 2007. The school also signed the Talloires Declaration of the Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future, a document composed in 1990 at an international conference in Talloires, France — the first official statement made by university presidents, chancellors and rectors of a commitment to environmental sustainability in higher education. The signing of both documents are demonstrations of UM’s commitment to sustainability, as well as many other actions the school has taken in an effort towards becoming more green.

As part of the ACUPCC pledge, the school designed a Climate Action Plan in 2009. This plan includes an outline of possible scenarios that will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the university by 2020, as well as a goal of carbon neutrality. Additionally, “GreenU”— the sustainability office at UM — aims to re-apply to STARS every three years with the intention of having an appropriate timeline for planning as well as the implementation and measuring of changes in sustainability initiatives, according to Teddy Lhoutellier, UM sustainability manager in a recent interview with TheMiamiHurricane.com.

One of UM’s most notable accomplishments includes the recent LEED Platinum certification of the Patricia Louise Frost Music Studio Complex in 2015. This accomplishment for the university means the first higher education building in the region to achieve LEED Platinum certification. The music facility has a 70-KW solar system, electro-chromatic windows and a rainwater harvesting system for irrigation of the landscape and facility toilets.

Additionally, the Hecht/Stanford dining hall uses a biodigester for food waste, and the food court has solar panels installed on the roof. The University of Miami Student Activities center was LEED Silver certified in 2016 for new construction as well as the Schwartz Center for athletic excellence receiving LEED Gold certification in 2015. Two more campus buildings — Merrick Hall and Gables Hall — are currently in process for LEED certification.

The UM community’s collective efforts have led to improved energy conservation, waste diversion and public engagement. However, GreenU still identified some areas for improvement for the campus while undergoing its self-imposed STARS gap analysis. These areas include sustainable dining, waste minimization and peer-to-peer sustainability education.

As a response to the gap analysis, waste minimization efforts are currently underway, including the establishment of single-stream recycling throughout the university’s campus. These recent efforts include the biodigester in the dining hall to convert preconsumer waste into gray water. Additionally, GreenU and the ECO Agency — a branch of student government that focuses on environmental initiatives — have partnered to establish a stronger peer-to-peer sustainability education program called Eco-Reps.

“You can’t promote an idea if you don’t come up with a plan, some kind of strategic plan, and that’s what STARS offers,” said Lhoutellier. “We benchmarked against other universities, came up with gaps and said, ‘This is what we need to make sure we are more sustainable in two years’ — and that will translate with a better rating.”

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