By IRACEMA NAVARRO
Staff Reporter
If you’re a freshman or sophomore planning on being on this campus for a couple of years, you’re in luck. That’s when the last of three buildings currently being built on the east side of the campus will be finished.
According to the latest construction updates on the school’s website, all three buildings are on schedule. The Science and Innovation Building, the sleek and visually dynamic building towering over the east campus, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2020. That’s also when the Student Housing Building, which is 40 percent complete, should open. The Innovation and Instructing Building, which only began construction last year, is scheduled to open in the fall semester of 2021.
Ground broke on the Science and Innovation Building in October 2017, and early reports were it would be finished in two years. Originally pegged at $82 million, the three-story, 91,000- square-foot building was funded partly by a $4 million gift from Toyota and will be home to the university’s physics, biology and chemistry programs.
The high-tech building, which is visually impressive with its varying shades of blue and design patterns on the side walls reminiscent of the video game “Tetris,”will feature cutting-edge technology and equipment.
“They don’t teach science the same way, they need to get their interest and keep their interest,” said Roshni Thomas director of Facilities Planning Design and Construction. The first floor will hold the Center for Innovation in STEM Education, while the second and third floors will hold the biology chemistry and physics departments.
“I’m all for it if it gets the students interested in science,” said Kathi Nugal, a geology lecturer. She expressed a happy jealousy for the building being so close to the Natural Sciences and Mathematics building where she instructs.
The four-story residence building will add 506 beds to the campus and the 93, 670-square-foot building will include private and shared bedrooms.
While those two buildings are focused solely on particular students—those studying the hard sciences and those living on campus–the Innovation and Instruction Building is being called the “front door of the university.”
The four-story, 107,600-square-foot building will accommodate classrooms, computer labs, faculty offices, a 250-seat auditorium, coffee shops, and a full catering kitchen. The first floor will have a lobby and welcome area. The second floor will hold classrooms and computer labs. The third and fourth floors will have faculty departments as well as classrooms.
