Higher Education

UMN Shepherd Laboratories Renovation (Floors 3-6)

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Owner
University of Minnesota
Architect
BWBR
Service
Construction Manager, Construction Manager at Risk
City
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Size
46,000 SF
Year
Active

In 2018, Knutson turned a once-drab 1970s-era building into an airy and naturally lit home for the University of Minnesota’s robotics program. The project consisted of renovating three floors totaling 25,000 sq. ft., with the addition of a new exterior entrance and included new robotics research laboratories, solar vehicle research areas, a drone lab, teaming rooms, and conference areas. The 20,000-square-foot renovation overhauled the first and second floors of the five-story building with the goal of creating new work areas and nine flexible labs for robotics faculty and graduate students. During construction, floors three through five remained occupied with science and engineering programs.

This project now consists of renovating the existing 3rd and 4th floors along with approximately two-thirds of the 5th Floor for the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) that were occupied during the 2018 renovation. Throughout this project, the remainder of the building will stay occupied. The goal of this renovation is to accommodate new robotics and vision, virtual reality/augmented reality and graphics/visualization, human-computer interaction/social computing, and natural language processing. In addition, the project involves significant mechanical and electrical infrastructure upgrades. The improvements to the laboratory spaces allow for unprecedented innovation and collaboration among students, staff, and researchers.