Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

• Indiana State U. Adopts New Master Plan (left; Indiana State U. image)

• Wisconsin Governor Backs Off Goal of Getting 4 Campuses Off the Grid

• British Government Cuts Historic-Preservation Grants for Cambridge, Oxford, Other Universities

• In California, Cambridge Junior College Signs a Deal for 1913 Building

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

• Yale's Management-School Building Gets a Nod From a City Planning Commission (left; Yale U. image)

• Test of New State Construction Rules Could Save Ohio State U. $100-Million

• Construction-Cost Savings May Revive a Renovation at U. of Wisconsin at Whitewater

• Building Boom Over, Colorado State U. Plans to Lay Off 10 From Facilities Management

A group of Texas colleges and local economic-development organizations plans to renovate an old tire-manufacturing facility to create a research park in Waco, Tex.

The Central Texas Technology and Research Park, as the project is known, is led by Baylor University, Texas State Technical College, and McLennan Community College, along with McLennan County, the City of Waco, and several regional government and development agencies. The state Legislature and the Baylor Board of Regents have provided $10-million each for the project.

The 300,000-square-foot facility, once owned by General Tire, was built in 1940 and closed in 1986. The architecture firm Perkins and Will studied the site and determined that the building could be occupied within 18 months. First comes removing the old plant equipment, restoring the brickwork, putting on a new roof, replacing the windows, and adding...

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

• Nearby Residents Voice Concerns About New Yale U. Management Building

• Lenoir Community College Dedicates New Campus in Trenton, N.C.

• Elon U. Trustees Envision $250-Million in Construction Over 10 Years

• Rough Sailing for Proposed U. of West Florida Maritime Museum

A 10-story Tufts U. building from the 1970s was always intended to be taller, and now it is. (ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge photo)

Plenty of colleges make life hard for architects and contractors, asking that complex buildings be squeezed into unlikely sites, or constructed according to preposterous schedules, or both. But Tufts University deserves a special mention in the difficult-requests category: Not only did the university want a five-floor addition on top of its 10-story School of Dental Medicine building, in downtown Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, but officials also wanted to keep the original building open for clinics and classes while the expansion was under way. For good measure, the university also wanted the addition to enliven the exterior of a poured-concrete 1970s structure that was looking a little drab.

The 95,000-square-foot expansion was possible, in...

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture designed a new building for botanists in Fort Worth, Tex. (Botanical Research Institute of Texas image)

• Botanical Research Institute of Texas Unveils Building Plans

• Iowa Lakes Community College Adopts Climate-Action Plan

• New York U. Opens $6.5-Million Audio Facility

The Massachusetts College of Art and Design will build a striking 21-story residence hall in downtown Boston—and plans to share it with two nearby colleges.

The college signed a long-term lease under which the 493-bed building (left; rendering by ADD Inc.) will also house students from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Students from both institutions will share the art college's campus center, which is being renovated. It will offer shared dining facilities as well as a shared bookstore.

In addition, students from the pharmacy college will have access to the building's health center, as will students from the Wentworth Institute of Technology. Both the pharmacy college and the technology institute will contribute to the cost of building and operating the new facility.

Kay Sloan, president of the art college, said the project demonstrated how much can be...

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:

• Oberlin Will Close 1917 Art Museum for 18-Month, $11-Million Overhaul (left: Allen Memorial Art Museum, designed by Cass Gilbert; Oberlin College photo)

• U. of Iowa Investigates Chemistry Building That May Be Making Some Occupants Ill

• New Gillette College Building Will House Many Programs

• Patricia Oliver Is Named Architecture Dean at U. of Houston

The new art museum at Michigan State U. will have a "pleated" exterior. (Zaha Hadid Architects images)

Michigan State University's trustees voted Friday to go ahead with construction of a sleek new art museum designed by Zaha Hadid, the high-profile Iraqi-born architect whose firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, is based in London. The university is to break ground for the 46,000-square-foot project in March.

The three-story building will be notable for its unusual shape and for what the university describes as a "pleated metal and glass exterior." In fact, it has already gained a certain notoriety—in March The State News, the university's student newspaper, reported that contractors were afraid to bid on such a daring structure, and that some estimates put the project's price tag at a whopping $160-million. For all that, one critic complained that the structure wouldn't have enough gallery ...

Campus architecture and facilities news from around the Web:
• U. of Alabama Will Purchase Nearby Retirement Community for 20 Cents on the Dollar
• Webster U. Acquires 5.5 Acres and 3 Buildings, Including Library, from Eden Theological Seminary
• Landmark at U. of Tennessee at Knoxville Undergoes $14-Million Renovation
• Gehry Picked to Design Building for Australia's U. of Technology