University of Kentucky Agricultural Research Building — $285M Lexington Lab

Rooftop greenhouses are a structural problem before they’re an agricultural one. Water, soil, glazing and mechanical load all sit at the top of a 263,000-sq-ft research building, and the University of Kentucky is a few months from finding out how well the answer works.

Project Scope

The Agricultural Research Building broke ground on June 14, 2024 and is due to finish in November 2026, which puts it in its final stretch now. The $285 million project sits on the south side of UK’s main campus near the Martin-Gatton Agricultural Sciences Building, the Barnhart Building and the Plant Science Building.

BHDP Architecture and Flad Architects designed it. Turner Construction is the general contractor. The program combines wet and dry research laboratories with advanced teaching labs, a 250-seat auditorium and the greenhouse complex on the roof, which supports animal science, entomology, horticulture, plant science, plant pathology and soil science work.

Four academic departments move in: Animal and Food Sciences, Entomology, Horticulture, and Plant and Soil Sciences. A separate teaching greenhouse adds interior and exterior instructional space for floral design, plant identification and propagation courses.

Why It Matters

The building isn’t only academic space. It houses the Kentucky Office of the State Entomologist and the Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, both of which run statewide regulatory and diagnostic services covering all 120 Kentucky counties. When a grower in Pike County sends in a diseased sample, this is where it lands. Consolidating those functions with the research faculty who inform them is the operational argument for the whole project.

The 250-seat auditorium is sized for UK’s high-enrollment agriculture courses, including Introduction to the Horse and the Horse Industry, Domestic Animal Biology, and Bees and People, and doubles as community outreach space.

Funding came from $200 million in state bonds authorized in the 2024 Kentucky legislative session plus university restricted funds. Paired with the Martin-Gatton Agricultural Sciences Building that opened earlier in 2026 and was funded by The Bill Gatton Foundation, the college is closing out more than $500 million of new infrastructure inside three years. That’s a rebuild of an entire land-grant agriculture program’s physical plant, done in one push rather than a decade of phased renovations.

Project Team & Details