$17.2 Million Fund-Raising Campaign to Benefit Engineeringbuilding at Colorado State University; Groundbreaking Set Foroct. 3

A Homecoming weekend groundbreaking celebration Oct. 3 will kick off a $17.2 million fund-raising campaign to enable Colorado State University to expand its Engineering Building by 60 percent and renovate laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment and technology.

The 40-year-old Engineering Building houses the departments of civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering and the department of physics. Renovation and expansion costs will be met with public and private funds. The state of Colorado has pledged a minimum of $14.2 million, contingent upon the university raising $3 million from private sources.

The groundbreaking celebration will take place at 10:30 a.m. on the plaza south of the Engineering Building and east of the Lory Student Center on campus. The ceremony will provide a glimpse of what the building will look like when it is completed. Students, faculty, architects and construction managers will be available to answer questions. Colorado State President Albert Yates and volunteers from the College of Engineering and department of physics will participate in the ceremony, with a special appearance by one of the student’s robots.

The project will include renovation of 128,000 square feet and the addition of 43,000 square feet to connect three separate wings which now make up the building. Additional space will provide areas for new laboratories that will focus on duplicating real-world engineering problems for students. For example, one lab will allow students to participate in projects that reclaim deteriorating infrastructures such as roads, highways, public utilities and buildings. Updated technology will provide communication links around the world.

The project will benefit the more than 2,200 students and faculty who study and conduct experiments in the Engineering Building. The building was originally constructed in 1957 to accommodate half that number of students.

In addition to the $17.2 million capital construction campaign, alumni and friends are encouraged to contribute to the engineering fund-raising campaign for faculty endowed positions, enhancing the exterior of the building and equipping the integrated laboratories.

For more information on groundbreaking ceremonies or the engineering fund-raising campaign, call Jean Lamm in the College of Engineering at (970) 491-1312 or Vicki Lebsack in the College of Natural Sciences at (970) 491-0997.