The robotics lab at Johns Hopkins’ School of Computer Science and Engineering gets a shout-out in the January 17 issue of Time magazine. The article, “Where the jobs are,” discusses the sectors for job growth in the current economy. Johns Hopkins has established training programs to better match the skills of Baltimore residents with the requirement of the sophisticated bioengineering jobs now being created.

The photo in the article shows Professor Russ Taylor’s robotics lab at Hackermann Hall on Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. The building, with its open bays ...[more]

Think you know what goes on here? Look again. Step inside Hackerman Hall, home to Johns Hopkins’ Computational Sciences program and a remarkable intellectual crossroads.

It may sound counterintuitive, but the most important thing about designing science and research facilities doesn’t actually involve design. The only way to plan for a future facility is to give a long hard look at the way you work today.

It’s a little like looking at your eating habits and stepping on the scale when you want to get in shape. It’s not easy. Start by:

- Establishing a vision and a set of quantifiable goals that will support it
- Understanding where you are today, evaluating existing facilities and current processes ...[more]

The Genomics Building at the University of California, Riverside, is featured in the July issue of Lab Design News. The facility opened at the start of the 2009-10 academic year.

This high-intensity multidisciplinary facility, which advances the pioneering research of the University’s Institute of Integrative Genome Biology, concentrates on plant, insect, and microbial genomics.

The building serves more than 200 faculty, researchers, and graduate and post-doctoral students with a bioinformatics suite, research labs, and instrumentation facilities including insectaries and growth chambers, supporting the development of new products such as medicinal plants, stress-resistant crops, and ...[more]

Healthcare design leader Martha Rothman FAIA, LEED AP, has joined Shepley Bulfinch as a consulting principal.

In announcing the appointment, Shepley Bulfinch president Carole Wedge said, “The synergy of Martha’s experience and Shepley’s portfolio of health-care and institutional work couldn’t be stronger. This is a tremendous opportunity for us and for our clients.”

Martha brings more than 40 years of experience in the planning and design of healthcare and academic science facilities. She co-founded Rothman Partners in 1969, growing the firm to a staff of more than 60 by the mid-1990s. In 2005 the firm ...[more]

Shepley Bulfinch has begun schematic design for the new Health and Biomedical Science Center for the University of Houston’s College of Optometry.

The 167,600 s.f. state-of-the-art research and patient eye care center will include an ambulatory surgical center, laser center, specialized research labs, offices, seminar spaces, a new conference facility, and classrooms. It will be located adjacent to the J. Davis Armistead Building on the southern end of the University’s main campus. Housing an integrated clinical, teaching, and research program, the new building will dovetail into the existing facility in the Armistead ...[more]

CHARLESTON, SC – What’s more important than dedicating a new building? Putting it right to work.

On August 20, the Ashley Hall School did just that when it dedicated its new Library and Science Center in a ceremony that marked the beginning of the fall term. Shortly after the event, student began using the resources of the new library, which occupies the first two floors of the 24,500 square foot building, and classes convened in the third-floor science center.

The new center is linked to existing Jenkins Hall with a three-story glass box connector that houses faculty offices, a media lab, and a central stair.

Head of School Jill Muti ...[more]