From the ground up

The landscape of Greater Washington’s colleges and universities is shifting — quite literally. And it’s got to do with more than just the pandemic.

Academic programs like cloud computing and nursing are swelling with demand from employers. The further threat of climate change calls upon local jurisdictions and private developers to prioritize sustainability and renewable energy. Many campuses are reaching the 100-year mark, which means their buildings are old, their electrical systems outdated, and their equipment in need of an upgrade to keep up with what students need today, and beyond.

The average college student’s identity is changing, ushering in a student body that’s predominantly older, female, more racially and culturally diverse, working a full-time job and seeking career preparation in a variety of ways. That’s all complicated by the rising cost of education and teetering student debt problem that continue to hover over the country’s most marginalized prospective students, threatening access to the golden ticket of a four-year degree.

And like many far-reaching issues facing the region’s — and the country’s — systems of access and economic drivers, so much boils down to infrastructure.

“Building or renovating for the nontraditional, older student is a challenge because nobody thinks of them,” said Pat McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University. “But that’s who we are and that’s who we want to serve.”

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Courtesy of University of Maryland

The pandemic may continue to eat away at the revenue of higher education institutions, complicate their operations, impact staffing, force a reckoning with online access, dampen enrollment and ultimately call into question the need for the massive lecture hall. And yet, the message from academia’s presidents and real estate and planning leaders is clear today: The physical design is changing, but the demand for a unique sense of place on the college campus has never been more clear.

“All of us who manage physical campuses have spent the two years of the pandemic so far wondering about the future of the physical campus. Since we have proven to ourselves — some of us, kicking and screaming — but we’ve proven that we can do online learning, which has sharpened the question of, ‘Is there still going to be a place for physical campuses in the future?’” McGuire said. “I’m one of those people who says, ‘Absolutely, yes,’ because the physical campus is more than a place with classrooms. It is a society.”

Darryll Pines, president of the University of Maryland, said the residential campus model still rings true, but students’ needs for learning are shifting. For Maryland, that’s meant a jump from 5% to 20% virtual learning that he anticipates will stick around.

“The group of people who come to our institution — like many residential campuses — they’re still coming. They’re going to always come. They want that college experience. That’s never going to go away for the 18- to 26-year-old human being,” Pines said. “However, what we have noticed over the last two years is that these young people also want to have some flexibility in their curriculum.”

That hasn’t spared universities from needing to invest in place, even through the pandemic, said Ken Ulman, the University of Maryland’s chief strategy officer of economic development and president of Terrapin Development Co. “The institutions that are going to thrive in the next generation are the places that have a compelling reason for you to physically go to that place. Otherwise, get a degree online,” he said. “This is not just putting up buildings.”

In that vein, we offer some of the most significant ongoing or planned campus projects for the next five years, ranging from solar panels to student centers to storage for beet juice. This list alone — which is hardly exhaustive — encompasses at least $3.6 billion and 8.24 million square feet worth of new and renovated university development on the books.

However, the pandemic’s effect on construction, including on local college campuses, doesn’t come without complication. Supply chain issues have resulted in escalating costs for labor and materials, forcing construction crunch times and delays in some cases. In others, it means more flexible, tech-focused classrooms to plan for the future of hybrid learning.

These projects also have an ambitious underlying aim: to attract the most talented students to Greater Washington and convince them to stay, to learn, and to start and continue their careers here to continue feeding a regional workforce that’s set itself apart in the past, but is now competing more vigorously with other lower-priced markets in the era of remote work. Ultimately, these projects matter both to the institutions ushering in them, and the growth they plan to bring to the region.

American University

American University, which is undergoing a much broader process of campus master planning for the next 20 years, wants more immediately to add a new Center for Athletic Performance on its D.C. campus to update its athletics department. The project is part of its 2021 campus plan, still pending approval from D.C. authorities.

Center for Athletic Performance

Bowie State University

The most significant undertaking by Bowie State University, Maryland’s oldest historically Black university, is a new communications arts and humanities building, designed to anchor the section of the Bowie campus, and accentuate outdoor space for classes and performances, said spokeswoman Cassandra Robinson. It’s all part of the university anticipated growth in the future.

"The project will assist in the alleviation of the present classroom deficit and partially absorb some of the projected growth in student enrollment," Robinson said.

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Perkins & Will / Bowie State University

Communications Arts and Humanities building

Catholic University

The Catholic University of America’s expansion plans focus on expanding its academic programs, particularly centered on the demand for nurses reflected in the health care industry locally and amplified across the U.S.

“We will bring the foremost technological advances into play to help educate the next generations of Catholic University nurses with state-of-the-art labs and classroom spaces,” President John Garvey said at the project’s groundbreaking in December.

Solar array

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Courtesy of Catholic University

Nursing and science building

George Mason University

Mason’s major projects that will open within the next five years include its IDIA building and School of Computing on its Arlington campus as well as a new life sciences and engineering building located in Manassas. Both projects are part of the university’s response to the need for more specialized labs, especially wet labs, as bioscience and other related academic programs are increasing in demand, and to get ahead of projected growth in enrollment.

“These projects represent the building blocks of Mason’s future, consistent with the distinct and strategic campus visions laid out in our new Master Plan,” Carol Kissal, Mason’s senior vice president for administration and finance, said in a statement. “The projects in our capital plan will renew and reimagine the academic core and student experience on our Fairfax campus, while the developments at the Arlington and SciTech will focus each campus’s graduate programs, while fostering commercial and industry partnerships.”

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George Mason University

IDIA

Life Sciences and Engineering Building

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is collaborating with MedStar Health to build out a new medical facility on its medical campus, designed to modernize and upgrade the technology of its clinical environment. The university said the goal of the new medical/surgical pavilion is to attract even better talent in terms of students, nurses, physicians and researchers, particularly across the orthopedics, cancer, neurosciences, transplant and surgical disciplines.

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Courtesy of MedStar Georgetown

MedStar surgical pavilion

George Washington University

GWU wants to renovate the largest first-year residence hall located on its Foggy Bottom campus. The goal is to improve and modernize a freshman’s first impressions of campus, while also facilitating collaboration among residents, spokeswoman Crystal Nosal said.

“Its role in providing a high-quality living-learning experience is critical to creating a sense of identity and community for GW’s Foggy Bottom campus,” Nosal told the Washington Business Journal. “With the intent to draw students out of their rooms and into opportunities to live, learn and develop as an inclusive community, the building’s design integrates academic and social experiences around a lively central spine with views, clear orientation and destinations for collaboration.”

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VMDO Architects

Thurston Hall Renovation

Howard University

Howard University’s development footprint highlights its focus on bolstering medical research, as well as the need for more student housing, closer to its main campus in Shaw, in anticipation of a growing student body.

One of those endeavors is redeveloping its Wonder Plaza on Georgia Avenue NW to offer more amenities to students.

“The site offers an opportunity to build on the neighborhood’s revitalization momentum, while serving critical university functions,” reads a document about the project, shared by university spokeswoman Misha Cornelius, which adds that the development fits within Howard’s strategic plan, land plans and campus master plan. “The Wonder Plaza Site is envisioned in the campus plan as a fusion building that integrates recreation and student residence, and will become a nexus of activity on the western edge of the core campus.”

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Google Streetview

Wonder Plaza

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Howard University

National Research Center for Health Disparities

Marymount University

A potential tenant on Marymount’s next major expansion: beet juice.

Right now, Arlington County, like other jurisdictions, salts its roads ahead of ice and snow to prevent dangerous driving conditions. But the solution proves to be a danger for animals and for waterways that feed into the Potomac River.

Marymount University wants to solve the issue by adding green space to the surrounding neighborhoods near its Arlington campus, with a physical space for road treatment that isn’t harmful to the environment and follows the lead of cities like Seattle and Portland, said Barry Harte, vice president for finance and operations and treasurer at Marymount. Beet juice has a chemical that can do just that. While he acknowledges there are other solutions worth exploring, too, he said the university is up for taking research risks.

“We have a fairly new president, lots of ambitious plans, a desire really to up the profile,” Harte said. “I think what you’re going to see is construction and fundraising and engagement that matches that desire.”

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Courtesy of Marymount University

Green Initiative

University of Maryland

President Darryll Pines views the university’s role in helping to solve the “grand challenges” facing society: climate, sustainability, clean energy, Covid, just to name a few.

“As we think about the social context of these grand challenges, they help us redefine our need for the infrastructure,” he said. “It’s in that context that we have looked at both what has just happened to us and how it refines our strategic plan and what we’re going to focus on, which then refines our master plan, both on the campus, off the campus, of why we are working on it.”

Corporate partners like quantum computing startup IonQ Inc. taking up shop at the University of Maryland’s Discovery District can’t thrive without recruiting great talent, which requires a consideration of quality of life in the project’s design goals, pointed out Ken Ulman, the University of Maryland’s chief strategy officer of economic development and president of Terrapin Development Co. It’s no longer enough to just work for best quantum computing company and have all the latest technology at your fingertips. You have to want to live where you work and attend school, too — especially given the perks of virtual work and learning, he said.

In order to be a hub for innovation, “you do have to build out the ecosystem that folks demand,” Ulman said. “What are the drivers of things that help you choose where to live and where to put your business? We’re addressing all of those, from housing choices, from shopping, from transportation options, recreation. This is not just putting up buildings. It really is an ecosystem development.”

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Ayers Saint Gross

Discovery District

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Ballinger, courtesy of UMD

Chemistry building

Montgomery College

Montgomery College’s three major projects right now pertain to improving student access and resources and expanding and modernizing classroom and lab spaces to accommodate for the college’s expected growth. All three projects are included in the college’s 2013-2023 facilities master plan and ensuing updates.

Right now, Montgomery College’s Germantown campus is the only one without a hub for student services. “For someone who might be the first in their family to go to college, we want those services to be consolidated,” spokesman Marcus Rosano said.

Kristina Schramm, Montgomery College’s interim director of capital planning, design, and engineering, provided the following details on three major projects that are upcoming, particularly a key one slated for its Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus.

“It’s a very diverse area, and compared with the rest of Montgomery county, the income level is lower as well as the education level,” Schramm said. “If someone is relying on public transportation to get to the Takoma Park campus or any of the other campuses, it can take quite a while, so this would provide easier access to education for the residents.”

Germantown Student Services Center

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Courtesy of Montgomery College

Takoma Park/Silver Spring Catherine and Isiah Leggett Math and Science Building

East County Fourth Campus

Northern Virginia Community College

Northern Virginia Community College’s current projects focus on preparing the next wave students to meet the region’s workforce needs, particularly in health care and skilled trades sectors, as well as expanding capacity for an expected growth in enrollment in the future, said spokeswoman Hoang Nguyen.

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Courtesy of Northern Virginia Community College

Center for Medical Excellence

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Courtesy of Northern Virginia Community College

NOVA Skilled Trades Center

Prince George’s Community College

Prince George’s Community College is navigating the pandemic’s push toward hybrid learning by including spaces and learning environments in its design that can serve both in-person and online learning, said Donald Pruett, PGCC’s acting director of planning, design and construction.

“We’re trying to develop our built environment based on what we’ve learned,” Pruett said. “Traditionally, community colleges are commuter-type schools. We’ve learned that when students are engaging with other students while on campus, they have a greater learning experience and they’re becoming more successful and we want to engage those needs for them. We don’t want to just put them in a box.”

Pruett added that it’s important to the community college to preserve what they can of the original building as an artifact and incorporate it into the new design, as well as approach construction with a “domino effect” of one after the other.

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KPN Architects

Marlboro Hall

Duke Student Center

Trinity Washington University

Trinity Washington University’s small campus in Brookland will turn 125 years old this year — and several of its buildings show it. Historically a women’s liberal arts college for Catholic women, Trinity now serves predominantly Black and Latina female students, as well as working and commuter students, and it’s attempting to update its architecture to meet their needs. When it comes to its Alumnae Hall, a nearly 100-year-old dining hall and dorm at the core of its campus, it would be easier to tear it down, but Trinity is fundraising for a renovation — one that will also require historic preservation, said President Pat McGuire.

“How do we repurpose this old dormitory and dining hall into this modern campus center where everybody who comes to this campus of any age, regardless of whether they have a meal plan or not, regardless of whether they live here or not?” McGuire asked.

She said it’s been a place where students, regardless of age or year, can commiserate over their struggles, academic or emotional, perhaps lessening each other’s burdens, especially for young female students. “Those are the conversations that happen over a cup of coffee,” she said. “They’re not going to happen on Zoom, so we want to create that sense of camaraderie. Our students call it the Trinity sisterhood.”

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Timothy Russell/Trinity Washington University

Alumnae Hall

Virginia Tech

The Blacksburg university’s expansion into Northern Virginia is most notably marked by its billion-dollar innovation campus, the largest of all the regional higher education projects and one eventually envisioned as a hub for private companies, researchers and funders. This initial phase entails three academic buildings located in Potomac Yard, with the first now under construction. Its conception is no coincidence: The university’s effort to create a long-term tech talent pipeline prioritizing people of color was sparked by Amazon.com Inc.’s HQ2 search.

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Courtesy of Virginia Tech

Innovation campus