Constructive development: ‘Collaborative collisions’ at heart of new facilities for teaching, research

by Slawson Companies on 6.1.17

What do you call the once-in-a-century redevelopment project that is adding and revamping hundreds of thousands of square feet of classroom and laboratory space to the University of Kansas campus?

Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little has a word for it: “Transformative.”

“Together, these projects have transformed the university,” she said during a November ceremony celebrating the construction’s progress. “Not just changed or improved … Transformed.

The transformation includes construction or renovation of three buildings that will be occupied in part by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences: the new Earth, Energy & Environment Center (EEEC), which will be home to geology and petroleum engineering studies; the new Integrated Science Building (ISB), which will host work in chemistry, medicinal chemistry, physics and molecular biosciences; and Summerfield Hall, which is being renovated to become a new home for the Department of Film & Media Studies, complete with a new soundstage and high-tech computer editing facilities.