Engineering and Science Building Construction Begins
Vanderbilt’s Board of Trust has approved construction of a seven-story engineering and science building designed to foster project teamwork and offer programs, instrumentation areas and core research space that will promote interdisciplinary work.
Construction of the 230,000-square-foot tower got underway in May after Commencement exercises. The new building will connect to Olin Hall, one of the School of Engineering’s landmark buildings, through a double-height atrium that will lead to a highly interactive learning and research environment. The nearly 40-year-old Olin Hall currently houses the mechanical engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering departments.
“We want to continue to attract and recruit the best students and provide them with exceptional research experiences at the undergraduate and graduate levels,” says Philippe Fauchet, dean of the Vanderbilt School of Engineering. “This new facility will allow for even greater collaboration among students and faculty across disciplines so we can deliver scholarship of the highest caliber to address important societal issues.”
Key features of the building include an Innovation Center designed to connect students and faculty with technology transfer and industry mentors in order to accelerate the transfer of laboratory discoveries and student-developed concepts to the marketplace. An Undergraduate Commons featuring student-centered space will be located next to the research laboratories and above the Innovation Center. A clean room and advanced imaging facilities will provide capabilities to advance discoveries in areas such as nanocomposites, smart materials, advanced energy storage and nano-biotechnology.
Five floors of the building can support a variety of research laboratories and new transinstitutional programs designed to attract and retain top academic leadership in the School of Engineering, the College of Arts and Science, and the School of Medicine.
The building is expected to be completed in the summer of 2016 at an estimated cost of $109 million.
See more renderings of the new building:
Created with flickr slideshow.