Rendering of Cornell Tech's Roosevelt Island Campus
IMAGE COURTESY OF KILOGRAPH
Universities are embarking on building binges to construct new facilities and even new campuses. Columbia University is spending US$6 billion to build a new 17-acre (6.9-hectare) campus in New York, New York, USA. Across the U.S., the number of construction projects launched by colleges last year increased 19 percent over the previous year, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. Halfway around the world in Sydney, Australia, universities had more than AU$2 billion in work underway as of last year.
But some students facing staggering tuition bills—and a future full of loan payments—are wondering if these projects are part of an “edifice complex” rather than being truly necessary. Project managers say the best way to respond to concerns is to include local community members, especially students, in the decision making from the start.
When the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, USA proposed a US$135 million renovation of its student union in early 2012, the scope included a 1,200-seat concert hall. In a referendum, students rejected the plan.
“The students were pretty concerned about the concert hall,” says Martina Oxoby of the university's Campus Planning, Design and Construction Office and the project's planner. “They did not see a value added to their day-to-day experience of the student union or their student dollars.”
The project team worked with the student government and university leadership to remove the concert hall from the scope. In late 2012, students approved the new US$95 million plan. Construction started in January 2014, and the project is slated for completion in 2016.
Before and after the referendum, Ms. Oxoby and her colleagues met with student groups and others to plan spaces in the building. “We have kept in touch with those groups through every stage of design and construction,” she says, noting that groups even weighed in on the selection of furniture. During the design process, those meetings were face-to-face. That's critical, says Ms. Oxoby: “How else can you do it? We expect our design teams and contractors to meet with us face-to-face and build a personal relationship—that's what we expect of our building users, too.”
At the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, student input led to revised plans for new dorms. The university is building 13 residence halls—the first opened in 2013, and the last is slated for 2017—with a total budget of US$422 million.
The first set of dorms built included four-person suites with two bedrooms. But then university surveys revealed 93 percent of students had never shared a room before going to college, so designs for subsequent residence halls were changed to emphasize two-person suites with private bedrooms, says Penny Cox, the university's director of housing project implementation and new strategies.
“The students were pretty concerned about the concert hall. They did not see a value added to their day-to-day experience of the student union or their student dollars.”
—Martina Oxoby, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA
EXTRA CREDIT
Project: Sabah Al Salem University City campus
Location: near Kuwait City, Kuwait
Cost: US$3 billion
Schedule: 2004-2019
Highlight: Patterned metal screens outside of each building in the center of this new campus will create relatively shady, cool spaces for gardens and plazas.
Project: Nanyang Technological University's Learning Hub
Location: Singapore
Cost: SGD45 million
Schedule: 2012-2015
Highlight: The 12-towered building aims to reflect the collaborative nature of modern learning with plenty of open spaces for students and professors to meet.
Project: Cornell Tech's Roosevelt Island Campus
Location: New York, New York, USA
Cost: US$2 billion
Schedule: 2015-2043
Highlight: The Bridge, a co-working space, will bring together university students and tech companies.
Project: University of Florida's Infinity Hall
Location: Gainesville, Florida, USA
Cost: US$23 million
Schedule: 2014-2015
Highlight: The residence hall will house both students and companies, offering the former a foot in the door to the working world before graduation.
Beyond the Students
The University of Cambridge's North West Cambridge Development plan has generated interest well beyond the school's student body. The £1 billion development is a mixed academic and urban community in Cambridge, England, with the first phase set for completion in 2017.
Because the project involves so many stakeholders, the university created a community engagement plan. That includes a community forum group of more than a dozen local leaders that meets about once a quarter. The university also held workshops with community leaders to incorporate their ideas about issues like traffic, open spaces and use of the community facilities. In addition, local politicians are briefed about every six months and project updates are mailed to 3,000 area homes.
“We produced a document at the end of the design process called ‘You Said, We Did,’ which recorded the main issues raised by the local community and how we had responded to them,” says Heather Topel, deputy project director of the North West Cambridge Development.
The University of Sydney has also focused on communicating with nearby residents. It's in the midst of a massive AU$1.5 billion improvement project that will transform much of the campus over the next 15 years, says Greg Robinson, director of campus infrastructure services, who oversees the project. In 2014, the university created a public display area describing the plan and organized seven community drop-in information sessions staffed by subject matter experts. When the community expressed concerns about the heights and bulk of the proposed buildings, the project team reduced the scale of nearly all.
“It's important to involve all your communities in the evolution of the project and then show them how their issues have been addressed,” says Ms. Topel. —Sandra Swanson
SATELLITE SPREE
Earth's satellite networks are about to get a major upgrade. Airbus Group and broadband Internet provider OneWeb have partnered on an ambitious project to develop the world's largest and most powerful satellite constellation by 2019. Estimated to cost at least US$2 billion, the project includes about 900 small low-earth-orbit satellites that together will trump the capacity of existing networks by a factor of 10 and help provide Internet access to underserved areas around the globe.
In order to succeed, the project team will have to integrate various systems, including ground communication networks and existing satellite networks. The range of organizations partnering with Airbus Group and OneWeb signals the project's complexity: Arianespace and Virgin Galactic will spearhead launching satellites; Hughes Network Systems will establish the ground network; and Intelsat will collaborate with OneWeb to integrate its current satellite network with the new constellation and achieve maximum Internet access.
The project aims to produce several satellites a day, for about US$500,000 each—far faster and cheaper than current satellite production methods, The Guardian reported in June.
“Teaming with OneWeb with a requirement to produce several small satellites each day has inspired us to develop innovative designs and processes that will dramatically lower the cost in large volumes for high performance space applications,” François Auque, head of space systems for Airbus Defense and Space, said in a statement. “This partnership is a fantastic new chapter in our space story.” —Ben Schaefer