Guiding University’s First Major Design Build Project

We proudly advised the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s first major design-build project – its 70,000-square-foot Life Sciences building.

Opened in time for the fall 2020 semester, the $65 million building serves as the new home for the College of Natural Sciences’ biology, microbiology and botany departments, as well as the Pacific Biosciences Research Center and the Biological Electron Microscope Facility. Along with 21 modern laboratories, the building also features a 600 square foot student collaboration area, 52 graduate student workstations, five conference rooms and 28 faculty offices.

“Beyond the amazing educational and research opportunities that the facility offers our students and scientists,” says University of Hawaiʻi President David Lassner, “it also provided the university an opportunity to prove that it could efficiently build a facility that will advance 21st century teaching, learning and research.”

We worked closely with the university to draft the procurement materials, design-build contract, and conducted a statutory compliance review. The university selected partners Layton Construction Company, LLC and Group 70 International, for the construction and design of the project respectively. The building reached completion in just 4 years.