Well, I'd really advise you to go out there and talk to some potential users. You don't want to assume what their needs are, and get it wrong!
One thing I would encourage you to ask about is digitization; this often gets ignored in the Rush To The Shiny, but it's a real need. What analog research materials do faculty have that might be better off digital? What equipment would be needed to digitize them? What expertise and labor to digitize them correctly? Roughly how many {mega-,giga-,tera-,peta}bytes of digital information would that represent, and is there the preservation and presentation infrastructure to handle that?
Software and software development is clearly going to be a sticking point with that broad a variety of projects, particularly given (forgive me for saying this out loud) the low tech-savvy in the cultural-heritage space generally. What are you prepared to train people on? What are you prepared to build for people? What's the minimum tech-savvy (and tech LABOR) they'll need to pony up to play in your space?
I realize you're asking about physical space and physical tools here, and I haven't answered those questions... but the non-physical demands of what you want to do are actually worrying me quite a bit more. As we plan for a similar physical space, the requirements we're hearing are fairly straightforward: schedulable meeting space on neutral turf, presentation capacity (either a projector or a large-screen monitor), flexible and collaboration-friendly room configurations and furniture, good networking.
