Brian Maguire, senior project manager of Skanska's Pennsylvania office, tells GlobeSt.com the construction cost is $29.1 million, not counting the land, which is a former parking lot and is owned by the university. The building is adjacent to the University's new athletic/recreation building, completed by Skanska in 2003.

The three-story Science & Technology Center is scheduled to open in June 2006. It will house the biological sciences, bioinformatics, math, physics and computer science departments. It contains a 400-seat auditorium, research and teaching labs, classrooms and faculty offices. "Because of the many laboratories," Maguire says, "Ballinger came up with a unique way of concealing the exhaust ducts for fumes by designing four 'chimneys.'" He adds that the building was also designed so the roof trusses are suspended slabs above the auditorium in order to eliminate columns and "provide an unobstructed view from all seats."

Skanska, which is part of Stockholm-based Skanska AB, has three distinct development groups here: the higher education group, which developed this project; the health care and pharmaceutical group, which has recently extended several Pennsylvania hospitals, and another which Maguire describes as a "mixed bag." It includes aviation, transportation and sports and entertainment projects.