RIVERSIDE, Calif.—The University of California Regents board has approved the Riverside campus’s new $84 million Education Building II project for UCR’s School of Medicine.

Following a design-build competition, the University of California Regents—in concert with the UCR Office of Planning, Design, and Construction—selected the design-build team of Hensel Phelps and CO Architects for the construction project. Both firms are headquartered in Southern California.

Included in the education building plan are an outdoor plaza that will give the School of Medicine its own unique identity. Solar panels and state-of-the-art thermally insulating materials will help reduce the building’s environmental impact. Due to its sustainable design, the Education Building II facility has been certified LEED Platinum.

In a recent statement, Eric Bain, Hensel Phelps’ operations manager for the project, said that his firm is excited to be back at UC Riverside. Hensel Phelps previously worked on the campus’s Multidisciplinary Research Building, which won a National Award of Merit in the category Industrial, Process and Research Facilities.

“At the core of our design and construction efforts is the desire to support, promote, and advance the campus’s vision to create an inclusive and innovative learning environment,” said Bain. “The design-build team looks forward to working side by side with UCR to create a new home for the School of Medicine that will be a focal point on campus and within the broader Riverside County community.”

“We have partnered with Hensel Phelps on other strategic pursuits for the University of California, and have highly refined the process to deliver exceptional buildings,” James Simeo, principal at CO Architects and project design lead, said of the collaboration. “The new, five-story facility will create a new home for the School of Medicine, prioritizing collaborative spaces for students, faculty, and staff.”

University personnel weighed in on the value of the Education Building II project, and also praised the joint venture of the two construction firms, which is being labeled “Hensel Phelps + CO Architects.”

“I would like to thank the UC Regents for their approval of this project, which will give us the space we need to grow our class sizes to 125 students per year and continue to fulfill the mission of increasing the number of physicians in the underserved inland Southern California,” Dr. Deborah Deas, vice chancellor of health sciences and the Mark and Pam Rubin Dean of the UCR School of Medicine, said of the collaboration. “There is so much to be excited about.”

Construction is due to kick off this summer, and Bain anticipates UCR School of Medicine’s Education Building II’s will be completed sometime in the middle of 2023.

UCR’s medical school first opened in 2013. In addition to its doctorate in medicine, the school offers concentrations in biomedical sciences, general surgery, pediatrics, psychiatry and cardiovascular medicine.

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Our first stop was the Council for Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI), in San Antonio, Texas. The trade show floor was filled with impressive displays, including the highly anticipated and talked about “classrooms of the future.” The four classrooms of the future featured innovative technology and equipment that those at the show could see and experience first hand. Students from neighboring districts were also invited to demonstrate how the technology could be implemented in the classroom by participating in guided lessons. The classrooms featured everything from smartboards, flexible furniture, video conferencing systems, and more. School Construction News will be giving a more in-depth look at the classrooms in the November/December issue of the magazine.

We were also introduced to many new products including Shaw Contract Group’s LokDots, which help to install carpet tiles even in high moisture or occupied space. Wanda Dunaway, director of education and government markets for Shaw, demonstrated the fast, easy and efficient delivery of LokDots for us at CEFPI. Steelcase Education Solutions also gave us a tour of their new innovative furniture that was on display in a classroom of the future model as well.

After meeting with clients and new friends at CEFPI, we flew to Pasadena, Calif., where we attended the Green California Schools Summit. While the weather was warm, the show floor was full of “cool” technology to save schools money on electricity bills, including our tradeshow neighbor, Jeanne Knobbe with IGSHPA, showing us how geothermal systems are utilized in school environments.

The Green California Schools Summit featured breakout sessions throughout the two-day show, including meetings specifically for K-12 and for college/universities. School Construction News attended several sessions and received valuable information on school construction trends, projects, challenges and triumphs. Many of the sessions focused on schools going beyond the necessary energy-efficient requirements put in place by some institutions. Instead of pursuing the minimum energy-efficient requirements, many schools are raising the bar and pursuing net-zero energy.

Some of the projects discussed in the sessions will be featured in School Construction News’ first issue in 2013 that focuses on green schools.

After absorbing all the knowledge from CEFPI and the Green California Schools Summit, we are back in the office until November — when we head down the street to tour the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in San Francisco.

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