New Construction
A new high school under construction in the West Fargo School District in Horace, N.D., will not be able to open in time for the new school year due to construction delays, according to officials. The district cites a number of issues “mostly beyond the contractors’ control” that will cause Horace High to delay its opening beyond Aug. 26, the district’s scheduled first day of classes.
New Construction
Santa Ana College, located in Santa Ana, Calif., debuted its new $60-million student center with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the evening of Tuesday, July 27.
Campus Renovation
The California-based building company C.W. Driver Companies announced this week that construction is complete on the Mt. San Jacinto College (MSJC) Temecula Valley Campus in Temecula, Calif. The 350,000-square-foot campus is the first permanent institution of higher education in the city.
New Construction
Groundbreaking has taken place on a new elementary school in Amesbury, Mass. Construction of the Sgt. Jordan Shay Memorial Lower Elementary School was approved by city residents in 2019.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 07/23/21
New Construction
The University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz., recently broke ground on a new Applied Research Building. The three-story, 89,000-square-foot facility will bring together eight departments from four colleges for a cost of $85 million. The building is expected to open to students by spring 2023.
New Construction
Construction has begun on a new academic building, Milgard Hall, on the campus of the University of Washington Tacoma in Tacoma, Washington.
New Construction
Loyola Academy, a private Jesuit college preparatory school in Wilmette, Ill., recently broke ground on a brand-new, 29,000-square-foot performing arts center. The Loyola Academy Center for the Performing Arts comes with a $25.76-million price tag and will feature flexible indoor and outdoor performance spaces.
New Construction
Orange County Public Schools, headquartered in Orlando, Fla., has announced that it will open four new campuses this fall. The new facilities include two high schools, one new elementary school, and a K–12 school for students with behavioral disorders.
New Construction
Officials gathered last week on the campus of Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, to break ground on a new alumni center. The building will be the first addition to the campus in 20 years.
Campus Amenities
On the University of Kentucky Coldstream Research Campus in Lexington, Ky., officials recently broke ground on a new residential village for the campus’ researchers and workforce. The 260-unit, multi-family complex, to be named FIFTEEN51 Apartments, is scheduled to open its doors to residents in spring 2022.
New Construction
On the campus of the University of Florida in Gainsville, Fla., construction has already begun on the new University of Florida Public Safety Building. The new home of the UF Police Department is intended to enhance visibility on campus and promote accessibility to the public.
New Construction
The commission that oversees school construction in the State of Ohio recently approved more than $242 million in state funds for the construction of nine new K–12 schools around the state. This figure combines with $208 million in local funds to set up $450 million in Ohio public education construction work.
New Construction
Construction on a new language arts complex recently began at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Calif. The college is partnering with Sundt Construction, Inc., on the facility.
New Construction
At UC San Diego, construction is set to begin on a 7-story academic building that will house health and medical programs. The $70-million La Jolla Innovation Center (LJIC) will be located just across the street from the southwest edge of campus. The university cited space concerns within the existing boundaries of its campus, as well as the fact that many of its on-campus buildings require expensive seismic upgrades.
New Construction
The new Wareham Elementary School in Wareham, Mass., is scheduled to open its doors to students in October, months ahead of its original projected opening in January 2022. Officials announced at a meeting in mid-June that construction was so ahead of schedule that the project was on track for completion by Sept. 15.
New Construction
Officials from the Del Mar Union School District near San Diego, Calif., gathered at the end of June to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new elementary school. The June 24 event marked the first in-person event for district board and staff since the beginning of the COVID pandemic.
New Construction
Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, held a groundbreaking ceremony last week for a new School of the Built Environment facility. Once complete, the building will play home to the construction management and architecture and environmental design programs.
New Construction
Officials at Diné College’s Shiprock south campus in Shiprock, N.M., celebrated a groundbreaking ceremony this week for a new, $7.4 million Math and Science Building.
New Construction
Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., announced this week that it has named its new Integrated Science and Engineering facility: The John and Joan Bollier Family Center for Integrated Science and Engineering is scheduled to open this fall.
New Construction
School and public officials celebrated a groundbreaking ceremony this week on a new academic building for Clinton High School in Clinton, Iowa. The groundbreaking marks the start of a campus overhaul that will occur in phases, and the full scope of the $66.8-million project is scheduled to be complete by fall 2025.
Campus Sustainability
The town of Mansfield, Conn., broke ground last week on the state’s first net-zero elementary school. Local politicians, town administrators, parents and students attended the ceremony on Thursday, June 25. The new school, which has yet to be named, will replace the town’s three existing elementary schools.
New Construction
Prince George’s County in Maryland is set to break ground on six new schools during the week of June 28 to July 2. The goal of the multi-school construction initiative is to address aging infrastructure, rising enrollment figures and a deficit of space for middle-school students in particular.
New Construction
Voith & Mactavish Architects, LLP (VMA) recently broke ground on a new building for the College of Business at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. The 74,000-square-foot structure is slated to open in fall 2022 and contain 16 experiential learning spaces for the Rauch School of Business.
Campus Renovations
Hampton High School, located near Pittsburgh, Pa., will see a major redesign of its parking lots and surrounding access roads later this year. The goal of the construction project is to improve and streamline the flow of traffic for the safety of students, faculty, and the surrounding community. The total cost of the project is estimated at $17.4 million.
Campus Facilities
Ivy Tech Community College Indianapolis in Indiana has officially celebrated the grand opening of the Ivy Tech Automotive Technology Center. The $14-million, 59,000-square-foot facility opened as part of a series of developments in the city’s International Marketplace District.
New Construction
Regents at the University of California have approved the construction of an $84-million Education Building II for the School of Medicine at UC Riverside. Hensel Phelps + CO Architects have been selected as the project’s design-build partner. Work on the project will begin shortly, and the team is scheduled to break ground early this summer.
Construction Costs
The St. Clair R-XIII School District in St. Clair, Mo., announced last week that it will delay several planned construction projects due to a spike in the cost of materials. The school board voted on Thursday, June 10, to pause the wheels of construction on a bus bay, a new auditorium, and a pickup and drop-off loop.
New Construction
At the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla., this week, university administrators and students broke ground on the construction of a new student wellness center. The new center will measure in at three stories and 47,000 square feet, four times as large as the existing Student Health Services building.
Campus Renovations
Last week, the University of Nebraska sold $345 million in municipal bonds to begin renovating and replacing aging campus facilities throughout the system. The university gained $400 million to begin addressing a backlog of projects at its Lincoln, Omaha and Kearney campuses, as well as the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis, Neb.
Healthy Schools
When I decided to build a new facility from the ground up, I knew right away that I wanted students to have fun, comfortable, modular spaces to collaborate in. I had the chance to start from scratch and design the new facility exactly how we wanted it—from the foundation to the structure to the wall colors and furniture design.