By Lindsey Coulter��

91��Ƶ��(SCN)��was excited to welcome��Tieg Murray��to��the��2026��Editorial Advisory Board.��As��Vice President of Market Strategy and Creative Services for Skanska USA Building,��Murray��leads strategic planning to strengthen market differentiation across core sectors, including education. Over the last 19 years at Skanska, Murray has advanced from Marketing Coordinator to senior leadership roles, driving growth strategies for higher education, K-12,��science��and technology.����

In her time at Skanska,��Murray has seen a lot of evolution across the��education and research world��— and��believes that higher��education��is��in a moment of real transformation.��

“Students’ needs are shifting,��and breakthroughs in science, medicine and technology are happening faster than ever,” Murray said.��“Being part of a team that helps campuses adapt to those changes has made the work deeply meaningful for me.��We’re��not just constructing buildings.��We’re��shaping environments that will support the next generation of students,��researchers��and innovators.”��

SCN spoke with Murry about the evolution of science and research facilities, future��trends��and big projects on the horizon.��

SCN:��What first drew you to the education��sector, and��what’s��kept you��invested��over time?����

Murray:��I’m��drawn to university projects and their ability to shape��the��student��experience and influence the future.��That interest has grown into a real passion for university science facilities��—��their complexity, precision��and the incredible innovation that��happens within those spaces��—��make them my favorite project��type that��Skanska��delivers.��Higher��ed campuses have��a��unique��energy.��They’re��places where ideas take��shape��and communities thrive. Knowing Skanska is trusted to build spaces that will directly support the next generation of researchers, educators and students is what keeps me invested and inspired in the work every day.��

SCN:��Science and research environments have evolved rapidly in recent years.��What’s��been the most significant shift since you began working in this space?����

One of the biggest shifts��is��the evolution of��science and research environments.��Labs were��traditionally built around a single��discipline��with very defined boundaries. Today��… science buildings are intentionally interdisciplinary, more technologically driven and built with flexibility at their core.��They’re��designed to support rapid change, encourage��collaboration��and adapt to research needs we��can’t��even predict.��Watching��this��evolution��makes��the work more exciting��and more challenging.��It’s��reinforced just how critical thoughtful planning and true industry��expertise��have become.��

SCN:��Looking ahead, how do you see education environments��—��particularly science and STEM spaces��—��needing to adapt?����

Over the next five to��10��years, science and STEM environments will need to become even more flexible and��forward-looking. Research is evolving too quickly for buildings to be tied to a single purpose, which makes adaptability essential.��We’re��seeing a strong shift toward spaces that can be reconfigured with ease, support emerging��technologies��and encourage collaboration across disciplines. Open labs, shared��equipment��and��purpose-built��collaboration areas are no longer��“nice to have”��features.��They’re��becoming fundamental to how innovation and learning take place on campuses.��

At the same time, institutions are facing increasing pressure to��operate��more efficiently and more responsibly. Sustainability,��resilience,��and performance are now central considerations in planning and delivering new facilities. Universities are working hard to reduce energy use and manage��long-term��operating costs, all��while supporting��highly complex��research programs.��Skanska is helping campuses meet these demands by delivering high-performing, resilient facilities��that support��cutting-edge��research��while lowering energy consumption and lifecycle��costs.��

SCN:��What projects are you��excited to see come to fruition?����

On the East Coast,��I’m��proud of��what’s��ahead��for��Simmons University with the new Living Learning Center��in Boston��and at the University of Virginia with the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology��in��Charlottesville. These are the kinds of facilities that will open doors for students��and create��richer learning experiences,��while��giving researchers the spaces they need to push discovery forward.����

On the West Coast,��in Seattle,��the University of Washington’s Magnuson Health Sciences T-Wing Renovation is��a great example��of��how��we’re��helping institutions breathe new life into older facilities so they can keep pace with rapidly evolving scientific needs. Seeing an aging building transformed into a place that supports modern research is��exciting and��rewarding.��

In the��K-12 world, projects like the Beaverton High School Modernization��in Oregon, Rye Ranch Elementary��in Florida,��and the new Arlington High School��in��Massachusetts,��remind me why this work matters so much. These schools will shape the daily experience of younger students,��giving them safe, inspiring,��future��ready spaces where they can learn and grow.��

Ultimately, across��all these regions and project types, what excites me most is how each facility will directly support student success, research advancement, and community impact, and how Skanska continues to be a trusted partner in shaping the future of education.����

Watch for more insights from Murray and other Editorial Advisory Board members��throughout the year.��

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Campus safety could not be a timelier topic, from elementary school and high school to college and university campuses. Larger issues like gun control will take time to address as students arrive on college campuses. Underlying and growing in parallel on our campuses is stress among students that have seen the unthinkable happen time and time again, continuing to feel unsafe and needing safety in every way. They crave clarity, predictability and peace. They need well-being.

Last year, I covered ways to improve safety through design strategies like Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED). But we can expand this toolkit in other ways, taking a view on campus safety of broader dimensions. Studies dating back to 2001 show well-being design strategies reduced mental fatigue, hostility and outbursts of anger. In one study — titled “Environment and Crime in the Inner City: Does Vegetation Reduce Crime?” — greener buildings resulted in 52 percent fewer felonies, with 7 to 8 percent linked to increased access to nature, which is also strongly tied to increased calm, ability to focus, reduced absence and greatly improved school retention rates. Stress inhibits situational awareness, the conscious observance of one’s surroundings that alerts to health and safety threats, and we miss leakage, the term for the hints disturbed people leave that forewarn catastrophic behavior.

Environmental Stressors

Environmental stressors affect our bodies without our knowledge or volition, constantly affecting our well-being. New understanding of our physiological and psychological relationship with our environment applied to campus planning, design and architecture can improve daily experience, well-being and support individual resiliency. At our disposal are:

• Experience Design, the process of identifying, designing, delivering and maintaining meaningful experiences over time;

• Biophilic Design, the process of design that stems from understanding the inherent human inclination to affiliate with nature; and

• Multi-Sensory Design, the process of design based on the application of scientific study of sensory perception and its effect on well-being.

These strategies contribute to the Settings Approach to design.

Settings Approach

The term Settings Approach refers to health and well-being stemming from the settings of daily life. As discussed by Dr. Mark Dooris, leader of the United Kingdom’s Healthy Universities Model and Framework Project and a founding contributor to the Okanagan Charter, this holistic model is concerned with making the actual places where people spend their time — the physical reality of our campuses — supportive of well-being.

The Settings Approach is at the core of the Okanagan Charter. It was created in 2015 by more than 380 researchers, practitioners, administrators, students and policy makers from 45 countries, including representatives from the World Health Organization; Pan American Health Organization; and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on the territory of the Okanagan Nation in Kelowna, Canada. The charter is being adopted by increasing numbers of institutions nationally, setting a commitment and process for well-being on all campuses.

The charter includes two Calls to Action — embed health into all aspects of campus culture, across administration, operations and academic mandates, and lead health promotion action and collaboration locally and globally. Four sub-goals pertain particularly to physical planning, design and maintenance of campus facilities, landscape and infrastructure.

• Include health, well-being and sustainability in all planning and decision-making of campuses and communities, with practices integrated and coordinated across all campus programs.

• Identify opportunities to study and support health and well-being as well as sustainability and resilience, in built and natural academic and learning environments.

• Proactively and intentionally create empowered, connected and resilient campus communities.

• Use cross-cutting approaches to embed understanding and commitment to health, well-being and sustainability in every aspect of campus life, thereby providing both healthful experience and habits that students will carry into life after graduation.

Two of the charter’s key principles directly address school construction and infrastructure: a focus on settings and whole system approaches and emphasis on comprehensive, campus-wide approaches to development and implementation plans for campus communities.

What More Can We Do?

First and foremost, central to the charter is defying silos and working with campus colleagues who may have only participated peripherally or incidentally in the development of campus facilities and master plans in the past. The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) has been at the forefront of educating student life administrators to the Settings Approach and aspects of campus planning and design that affect well-being. Get to know the student life administrators at your institution. Engage them in the development of new projects beyond the cursory initial focus groups. They want to be your partner and will be there to monitor success through the life of the facility.

Don’t wait for a major project to begin. A great success story from Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver, an early adopter of the Okanagan Charter, started with a simple renovation of a tired study area completed in-house by Facilities Services. Together, Rosie Dhaliwal, acting associate director of Health Promotion, and Marcos Olindan from Facilities Services began to expand the typical process, engaging students in deeper, more meaningful and continuous ways and focusing on features that improve the social, mental and physical health and well-being of space users.

The renewed area was so successful that the process was repeated many times in other areas throughout SFU’s Academic Quadrangle. Principles for Enhancing Well-Being Through Physical Spaces at SFU, guidelines developed from these projects, are now part of SFU’s Healthy Campus Community initiative, and are used in tandem with existing design procedures and standards such as WELL Building Standard, Whole Building Design Guide, LEED and CPTED.

Students are standing up, demanding greater response to campus safety. We are all on a learning curve, but with a more comprehensive attitude, we have tools and strategies available to meet this challenge.

Celine Larkin, AIA, LEED AP, is an architect, urban designer and campus planner with a passion for improving educational settings, currently focused on research into Gen Z and strategies that increase well-being and learning in all built environments. Formerly head of Urban Design/Master Planning at HGA Architects, Engineers + Planners and Gensler Los Angeles, she now consults internationally, based in Doha, Qatar.

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