Projects: Institutional

Purdue learning center to test and explore new approaches to teaching - 4/1/2008
Purdue University's $17.5 million, 90,000-sf Discovery Learning Center, set to open in fall 2009, will provide an environment for creating and studying the impact of new teaching methods and cutting-edge learning approaches. Indianapolis-based BSA LifeStructures designed the facility to be flexible to adapt to future needs.

North Miami to get a new high school - 4/1/2008
The City of North Miami and Miami-Dade County Public Schools have broken ground on the 165,000-sf North Miami Senior High School on a 4.5-acre site in North Miami, Fla. Designed by local architect Arquitectonica, the multi-story facility will have two primary volumes, each representing a different side of learning.

Fiber Optic Skylight Illuminates Maryland's EnviroCenter - 4/1/2008
A pendant light fixture trained on the building's reception desk dims as clouds pass overhead, then brightens again in full sunlight—an effect that never fails to surprise visitors to the EnviroCenter building in Jessup, Md. “People are always very interested in where that light comes from,” says Stan Sersen, owner of the EnviroCenter and founder of ASG Inc.

Michael Graves-designed renovation nearly complete at Detroit Institute of Arts - 4/1/2008
Construction is nearing completion on the $158 million master plan renovation and expansion of the Detroit Institute of Arts, designed by Michael Graves and Associates with SmithGroup as architect of record and Walbridge Aldinger/Jenkins as contractor. Expansion of the existing DIA will provide a new entrance to Prentis Court for special events.

USC cancer center promotes collaboration to find the cure - 4/1/2008
The University of Southern California Harlyne Norris Research Tower, designed by Lee, Burkhart, Liu of Marina del Rey, Calif., is the latest addition to the Norris Cancer Center within the Health and Sciences campus at USC. Built to effect change in the culture of cancer-treatment research and to encourage communication between scientists and pharmaceutical professionals, the biomedical facilit...

Turning pond scum into a community jewel - 4/1/2008
Searching for an ideal location for a new community center and park, the city of El Paso, Texas, selected an unlikely spot: a detention pond that was riddled with crime and ignored by the development community. The city challenged the Building Team to turn the 100-acre detention basin on the west side of town into its new Westside Community Park and Recreation Center.

Cuyamaca College opens its first-ever performance venue - 4/1/2008
Rudolph and Sletten, Redwood City, Calif., has completed construction of the Communication Arts Center at Cuyamaca College in Rancho San Diego, a suburb of East San Diego County. San Diego-based NTD Architecture designed the $44 million, 90,000-sf facility, which brings a first-ever performance venue to the campus—a 366-seat multipurpose auditorium that will be used for recitals, concerts...

Georgia Perimeter College opens a 100-acre campus - 4/1/2008
Georgia Perimeter College, a metro Atlanta multi-campus, two-year college, opened the doors to a new 100-acre campus in Covington with its first building: a 104,000-sf, all-in-one campus facility. Construction on a second student service-focused building began in December, and school officials anticipate it will be ready for classes at the start of spring semester 2009.

Bathroom 'pods' coming to Rice University student residence halls - 4/1/2008
Later this month, construction crews are expected to begin installing more than 175 prefabricated modular bathrooms for twin, six-story, 120,000-sf student residence buildings at Rice University in Houston. Manufactured by Kullman, Lebanon, N.J., the bathroom “pods” have an outer shell constructed entirely of glass reinforced plastic and are connected to a steel-based frame.

Kaiser Permanente’s Template for Success - 3/1/2008
Kaiser Permanente’s two new California hospitals, in Antioch and Modesto, were already well into schematic design when John Kouletsis asked designers at the two architectural firms working on them to put down their drawing pens. Kouletisis, director of strategy, planning, and design with Kaiser Permanente’s National Facility Services in the healthcare provider’s Oakland, Calif.