Shop Talk: New Buildings (Plus 2 Awards for Older Ones)

The U. of Rochester will construct a new research building for its Medical Center. (Francis Cauffman Architects image)

Groundbreaking: The University of Rochester Medical Center has broken ground for a new 200,000-square-foot, $76.4-million research building. It was designed by Francis Cauffman Architects, of Philadelphia, along with the Rochester engineering firm Bergmann Associates and the Boston firm BR&A Engineers.

Fitness facility: A new, 130,000-square-foot fitness center has opened at Bradley University. The $25-million facility, designed by PSA Dewberry, has an indoor pool, five basketball courts, two racquetball courts, a 46-foot-high rock-climbing wall, a bouldering wall, locker rooms, offices, and more.

Rafael Viñoly’s business school for the U. of Chicago won an award four years after opening. (Brad Feinknopf photo)

Also winning a belated honor was an athletics museum at the U. of Cincinnati.

Better late than never: Even though they’re both several years old, two university buildings have won awards from the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects. One award went to a complex designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects for the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. The building, opened in 2004, is best known for its atrium — a giant glass cube supported from within on four Gothic-inspired steel columns branching into pointed arches. The other award, for an interior project, went to the George & Helen Smith Athletics Museum in the Richard E. Lindner Athletics Center at the University of Cincinnati. The museum interior was designed by the Eva Maddox Branded Environments group of Perkins+Will. The athletics center was designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects and Glaserworks.

Sullivan University renovated and expanded an office building to house its new College of Pharmacy. (Sullivan U. image)

Pharmacy college: The new College of Pharmacy at Kentucky’s Sullivan University has spent about $10-million to buy, renovate, and expand a Louisville office building to serve as its headquarters. The building was dedicated this month.