Under Construction: Rowan University Veterinary School
LF Driscoll is helping make history in New Jersey. The LFD team is currently building Rowan University’s new Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine, the first in the state.
The first two floors of the 162,000sf facility will be dedicated to the classrooms, exam spaces, and animal care needs of the veterinary school and animal hospital, while the third and fourth floors will host labs, collaboration spaces, and support areas for the Virtua Health College Research Center.
While this hospital focuses on animals rather than people, the standards for the facility are equally high, says Ken Kaighin, LFD senior project manager. “The Department of Health doesn’t inspect the building, but there is an accreditation process for the school and its facilities,” he says. “The facility must meet all the standards expected for the cleanliness and biosensitive considerations of the pharmacies, surgical rooms, anatomy labs, and other spaces. That’s an area of expertise we know very well.”
One of the biggest challenges of the project so far has been managing its aggressive schedule. With the project timeline directly tied to the academic school year, there is no margin for delay. The team has been focused in particular on coordinating the constructability of the MEP systems within the design. For instance, the air handlers require extensive ductwork, and some ducts are so large (up to 12 feet wide) that additional steel support racks were needed to hang additional equipment below the ductwork.
That’s where virtual design and construction (VDC) strategies really came into play. “We have avoided numerous issues over the last several months by solving the problems in virtual space first,” says Kaighin. “We also did a trial run of a software that allows team members to walk through the modeled space using VR headsets. This was incredibly helpful for the owner’s maintenance and engineering staff to understand what they would be handed at the end of the project and provide input for adjustments before we build.”
The project is on track to be completed by August 1, 2025. Most of the walls are framed and topped out, roofs are on, and the team is digging into the interior systems and fit-out.
“There are over 250 tradespeople on-site right now,” says LF Driscoll senior superintendent Steve Ciallella. “We are installing the MEP systems and are well on pace to make sure the school welcomes its first-ever class of veterinary students right on time.”