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Schools Develops Plans for Research Center

RAPID CITY, S.D. — The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology is in the process of developing plans for a $37 million research center. Officials say the new facility will help the school meets its goal of tripling graduate enrollment in addition to the amount of annual research awards.

The 120,000-square-foot center will be funded partly by student tuition dollars, though most of the money will come from grants and private and federal funding.

The current space on campus for research is not adequate, which is causing the university to lease 32,600 square feet of space off campus, according to Tim Henderson, vice president for finance and administration for SDCMT.

“If you’re going to attract top-notch researchers and faculty, you need to show them some space that they’re going to be attracted to,” said Henderson in a statement. “If you have a research center where people work together, live together, and it attracts the type of stars you want, there’s a lot of synergies, teamwork and cooperation that doesn’t occur when you’re located all over the place.”

The SDCMT is now developing a “program plan” for the facility, as well as searching for an architectural and engineering firm to develop design and cost estimates. Since specific funding sources have not been identified yet, construction may not begin for three to five years, according to Henderson.

The SDCMT is looking to increase undergraduate enrollment by 50 percent, triple graduate enrollment and expand faculty from 150 to 220, according to the school’s 30-year plan.

"As the School of Mines grows student enrollment and the research faculty, having state-of-the-art facilities to house research activities is critically important," said Duane Hrncir, provost and vice president for academic affairs. "The proposed research facility is a key piece of the university’s growth and will assure that the School of Mines remains a leader in engineering and scientific research.”

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Health Building Uses Nature’s Blueprint

PHOENIX — Construction continues on the city-owned sustainable Health Sciences Education Building in downtown Phoenix, designed to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to health sciences education and research.

The 268,000-foot educational facility, located on the 28-acre Phoenix Biomedical Campus, broke ground in May last year and is slated for completion in August 2012.

The $129 million facility will be used by the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, the UA College of Pharmacy and the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, along with Northern Arizona University’s College of Health and Human Services programs, according to a statement from the architecture firm.

As part of the latest trend in medical education, the building’s layout allows for interdisciplinary curriculum taught to small groups of students by co-locating several different departments into the same building, according to L. Paul Zafjen, principal on the project from Los Angeles-based design firm CO Architects.

The building is laid out with common areas along a north-to-south bar that connects its two wings, with simulation labs, specialized pharmacy labs, a learning resource center and other common areas grouped to encourage interaction, he said.

“The collaboration stretches taxpayer dollars and merges elements of health programs formerly taught separately,” Zafjen said.

The firm says the building’s architecture is a response to its function, as well as the local climate, with desert earth forms and regional materials.

“The idea for the building was, in Phoenix, it’s surrounded by these mountains – a fairly flat plateau with these mountains. We kind wanted to bring nature downtown,” he said. “We thought one of the ideas would be this would be this kind of building, redolent of masonry. Things would be carved out of it.”

The facility will face east-to-west, with big windows facing north-to-south to allow in sunlight.

To reflect the city’s natural environment, the dual wings of the building are inflected so they shade the walls and create east to west canyons, the statement said.

A tall, narrow space between the two wings serves as a path to an interior courtyard, which will be clad in light colors, with burnished concrete blocks to provide cool thermal mass and reflectivity.

“What we did was, we carved away a big, kind of, canyon to let light into the center of the building,” he said. “Because of the climate, it’s a fairly tight canyon — six stories high — it varies in width but it’ll feel like you’re in a canyon.”

To shelter the space from the sun, the building will feature a scrim roof that prevents any high, direct sun going into the canyon. Its long, narrow design will keep out sun as well, he said.

Zafjen said that in addition to fostering a naturally interdisciplinary space, a key factor in designing the building was making sure it performs well in the city’s harsh climate.

“(The climate) also informs the choice of materials — the skin on the building is copper but it’s a skin that makes a stack effect so it heats up behind it and keeps the heat out from inside,” he said. “Masonry in the canyon … helps absorb whatever heat is in that canyon.”

Aesthetic features of the building reflect the local surroundings as well, the university reports.

“To connect the built environment to the surrounding landscape and bring nature into the heart of downtown Phoenix, the color and patina of the building skin draw from the peaks and mountains prevalent in Arizona,” the statement said. “Photographs of the mountains have been transformed into an abstract pattern embossed onto the copper cladding on both the skin and louvers.

Zafjen said the building design aims for LEED Silver or Gold, and that the certification is in the process.

Other sustainable features include south-facing façades that combine overhangs with perforated screens to function as sunshades, and vertical fins that control sun penetration on the north.

The biggest challenge in the design process was the changing economy, as well as political shifts, according to Zafjen.

In addition to a new governor, the economy “went south” during the project, with resulting budget constraints causing university partnerships in the project to change.

In light of those changes, the firm had to readjust the design and downsize it to half the original plan. The current facility is designed to allow for expansion of a research wing in the future, he said.

Despite the changes, the project has progress quickly from the beginning, he said.

The project was recently awarded a 2010 NEXT LA Citation award given to projects in the works by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

“This one-of-a-kind interdisciplinary facility will provide greater access to medical education in Arizona and will have a tremendous economic impact on the state by creating new jobs and pumping revenue into the economy,” said Ernest Calderón, a member of the Arizona Board of Regents.

The project team included CO Architects as the Design and Executive Architect firm, Ayers Saint Gross as the Associate Architect and Master Planner and DPR &bull Sundt, a Joint Venture of DPR Construction and Sundt Construction, Inc., as the preconstruction and construction manager at risk contractor.

“As a project team member, the DPR &bull Sundt Joint Venture is extremely proud to be constructing the landmark HSEB for the downtown Phoenix Biomedical Campus and to be part of an institution that will serve the State of Arizona for many generations to come,” said DPR Construction project director Peter Berg.

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Bio-Defense Facility at KSU On Track for Funding

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Based on a budget proposal announcement announced by the president’s office on Monday morning for fiscal year 2012, funding for the nation’s Bio and Agro-Defense Facility at Kansas State University is on track.

The $150 million allotted to to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the project assures that “a safe and secure food supply remains a national priority,” according to a statement from the school.

“We understand the difficult economic climate our nation faces today,” said Tom Thornton, KBA president. “That’s why we appreciate even more the resolve and commitment of the Department of Homeland Security to fund the NBAF. There is no question that a safe and secure food supply for every American is a national priority of the highest order.”

The total $650 million, 500,000 square foot facility will replace the 50-year-old Plum Island facility in New York, which is outdated and lacks space, according to the school. It will complement the nearby the Biosecurity Research Institute (BSL-3) facility also in Manhattan.

Officials expect the facility to be operational by 2015.

The facility aims to ensure public health and the safety and security of the national food supply through integrated research, response, and diagnostic capabilities to protect animal and public health, the school reports.

The facility also will enhance the nation’s capability to protect livestock and the livestock industry from both naturally occurring and intentionally introduced disease threats. The NBAF willl conduct research on emerging zoonotic and animal diseases in order to develop vaccine countermeasures for foreign animal diseases and advanced test and evaluation capabilities.

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Collaboration Key at New U of W Research Center

MADISON, Wis. — Officials from the newly-opened Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and Morgridge Institute for Research describe the new structure as very transparent.

“You can basically see through it — you can’t hide in it,” said Janet Kelley, communications director for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the organization funding part of the new public-private twin buildings on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The transparency is intended on both a structural and operational level. The facility was designed to encourage interaction and collaboration among different disciplines — the goal of the three groups that brought the project together.

The idea for the twin institutes was first proposed by former Gov. Jim Doyle about six years ago and “taken up with great enthusiasm” by alumni John and Tasha Morgridge, who donated the initial $50 million to kick it off, Kelley said.

Construction on the five-story, 300,000 square-foot project began three years ago in an effort to ensure that the city of Madison and the university stay at the forefront of research worldwide, she said.

The building, which cost a total of $150 million to build and an additional $60 million for laboratory fit-outs, equipment and support, uses 50 percent less energy and water than a typical lab building on campus, according to the university.

This is the first research facility on the UW-Madison campus with a geothermal heating system and the first designed to achieve LEED Silver certification for green building practices, the school reports. Building features include solar panels on the roof and pumps that recover water to irrigate the plants.

“This facility is unique, it does not belong to a particular department or discipline, it’s not a home to any department on campus,” Kelley said. “The scientists who were selected and who want to work there really want to — and see the importance of — working together.”

Employees are still in the process of moving in, but the building will have space for 400 employees, she said.

The Institutes are designed primarily for research rather than for traditional classes, but will include embedded teaching labs designed exactly like the research labs for instruction and research, Kelley said.

“We sent teams all around the country and some places overseas to look at facilities that supposedly had been built with similar goals in mind,” said John Wiley, interim director at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. “It is designed to facilitate interdisciplinary cooperation and accidental meetings amongst investigators that normally wouldn’t meet.”

The teams studied up to a dozen different buildings and gave their notes to the architects based on questions they had asked at those facilities, he said.

“We asked, what are the things you did that worked out really well? What are the things you thought were good ideas that didn’t work out well? What would you do differently if you were starting over and building it again?,” Wiley said. “We gave the notes to the architects and said, we want you to do the things that work, and avoid mistakes other groups have made.”

In contrast to other research buildings on campus, the building was purposely built without long hallways. Instead, areas called “draws” were constructed and that are meant to draw people together, Kelley said. The draws include a small kitchen, photocopier and supplies out in the open instead of tucked away in a dark room.

“People will come out and mingle,” she said. “That is the way some of the best partnerships are formed.”

There are no permanent walls of any kind in the building — instead, glass walls allow passersby to see into the module from the outside, according to Wiley.

The facility has wide, open labs, with utilities that come down from the ceiling and benches that can be moved around, he said.

Wiley said the spaces can be reconfigured very inexpensively — a breakthrough for a research facility.

“One of the biggest frustrations is when something needs changing, it takes up to a year,” said Wiley, who has overseen many research programs in his 35 years of experience. “Moving some electrical service, tearing out a wall, or putting in a wall to make one room into two – these require major construction projects that have to get approval and have drawings made.”

Wiley said the ability to move things around easily saves both time and money.

The wings of the building revolve around three towers, each with four stories above ground and one below.

The first above-ground floor features the Town Center, where scientists and the public can gather to showcase research and accelerate the movement of scientific discoveries from the lab to marketplace, the school said.

The Town Center includes a restaurant, coffee and pastry shop and a soda fountain, as well as rooms for meetings and outreach events and a round forum in the middle. Specialty laboratories that require more complex utilities and high ceilings are also on the first floor.

Floors two through four house research laboratories, with a research workspace dedicated to the private Morgridge Institute, a research workspace for the public Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and a joint integrated area.

The lower level and floors two through four each have two kitchenettes that researchers can use for coffee breaks or for celebrations, said Wiley.

The second floor includes a private dining room intended for researchers to get together over lunch or for catered events in the evening.

The research labs are insulated by two atria on the sides of the building, designed to block out traffic noise, provide natural lighting from skylights and draw people in.

“We want the building to be approachable from any side and very open, so the public can see what’s going on inside,” said Craig Spangler, principal at Ballinger and design lead on the project.

With an exterior made of terra cotta and glass, the main entrance of the 360-degree building is distinguished by large stones for seating and bicycle parking, according to the school.

The design aimed to connect communities at various different levels — research teams, the public and private institute, and the community at large, Spangler said.

The building also features “communicating stairs,” which are more open and wider and have room at the landings to “pause for conversation,” smart boards and flat screens, and labs designed to be adaptable to wet or dry research needs, according to the school.

Spangler said that a very important part of the project was making sure everyone was on the same page.

“This was very much about inventing a new environment,” Spangler said. “Any time you’re changing a foundation or culture that people are used to, you’re touching a lot of challenging issues — taking what people are used to, then changing that.”

Spangler said that fortunately, an in-depth benchmarking process took place during the design phase, with contributions from the academic community.

The institute is two-thirds privately-owned and one-third publicly-owned, which Kelley said offers the best of a really great public university but the agility and ability to act in a faster and more decisive manner for things like hiring, starting partnerships, or reacting to new changes in science and technology.

The private and public sector intend to work together to address critical challenges in fields ranging from virology and medical devices to the design of living spaces that accommodate home health care needs, according to the school.

The institutes are home to some world-class scientists, including James Thomson, who was the first to isolate and grow human embryonic stem cells in 1998 and reprogrammed adult skins cells to a pluripotent state in 2007. Thomson serves as director of regenerative biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research.

The firm was designed by Philadelphia-based architecture and engineering firm Ballinger, with the contracting by Findorff-Mortenson, a joint venture of J.H. Findorff & Son Inc. of Madison, and M.A. Mortenson Company of Minneapolis.

“Already, the paths of the 12 scientists affiliated with the two institutes have crossed, sparking meaningful collaborations in virology and systems biology, medical devices and tissue engineering,’’ said John Morgridge, chairman emeritus of Cisco Systems.

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TSU Awarded $1.3 Million for Renovation

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A tiger isn’t just the school’s mascot — it’s the acronym for their new research facility as well.

Tennessee State University received a $1.3 million grant to create the Tennessee State University Interdisciplinary Graduate Engineering Research (TIGER) Institute — a graduate level research facility for the College of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science.

The grant was awarded by the National Science Foundation under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and will go towards the renovation of relocation of five existing research laboratories into the new TIGER facility, according to the university.

The Institute will be located in the currently unfinished lower level of the Research and Sponsored Programs building on the western part of the campus.

The facility will create more opportunities for externally funded research projects, said Maria Thompson, vice president of the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs and the principal investigator for the grant.

“We’ve spent several months completing the grant proposal for this facility,” Thompson said. “Now TSU will have more advanced laboratories for our faculty and students to conduct research in areas of high national STEM workforce need.

The TIGER Institute will accelerate the University’s growing industry-research collaborations with Boeing, IBM, Raytheon, General Motors, DuPont and other companies, according to the school.

“The amenities within Torrence Hall are challenged by age and volume,” said Ron Brooks, assistant vice president of Facilities Management. “The new facility will resolve those issues and provide an abundance of additional resources.”

The Institute will allow the school to attract scholars, as well as contribute to the increase of the nation’s minority masters and doctorates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“TSU is recognized as one of the top universities in the nation in graduating African-American students with engineering degrees,” said S. Keith Hargrove, dean of the College of Engineering. “The transformation of the research facility has the potential to have a significant economic impact in the form of the development of a high-technology-enabled workforce.

Construction on the TIGER Institute is scheduled to begin spring 2011 and be completed summer 2011.

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UoM Research Facility Nearly Completed

MIAMI, Fla. — The University of Miami Life Science and Technology Park — currently under construction — has pre-leased 80,000-square feet of office and lab space to its first tenant, the University of Miami Tissue Bank.

Project developer Wexford Miami, a subsidiary of Wexford Science and Technology of Hanover, Md., finalized the lease in the park’s first building, currently under development. The park’s first phase, a 252,000-square-foot, six-story facility slated for completion in the summer of 2011, will house wet and dry labs, offices, and lab-ready development suites. Wexford Miami is financing the development with $60 million in tax-free bonds. Whiting-Turner of Baltimore is the general contractor for the project.

As part of the university’s Miller School of Medicine, the UM Tissue Bank will use the space to perform cutting-edge research on regenerative technology in replacing damaged bones, joints, and tendons.

Final plans for the technology park call for five buildings comprising 1.6 million square feet of space to be built within the city’s health district, home to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and six hospitals.

Pre-certified as a LEED Gold facility, the park has been designed to reduce energy use and improve environmental stewardship. Indoor and outdoor community spaces and street-level retail stores will serve the Miami Health District and residents of nearby neighborhoods as well. Environmentally friendly features proposed for park buildings include a grey water recycling system, chilled beams, green roofs, and a rainwater capture system used for irrigation.

“The collaboration that will unfold between university faculty and research teams at the UM LSTP has the potential to advance science that will positively impact the lives of people everywhere while simultaneously advancing the Miami Health District as a center for scientific innovation,” says Dr. Bart Chernow, professor of medicine and vice provost of technology advancement at UM.

For more information, visit www.umlsp.com.

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