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Building a Bigger Future

Written by Julie Ann Sanchez, The Shorthorn staff

Monday, 18 February 2008 03:13 PM

Engineering buildings by the numbers:

Civil Engineering Laboratory Building
Cost: $9.8 million
Approximate square feet: 26,473
Currently in construction
Completion date: August 2008
Will accommodate teaching and research labs and support spaces for Civil and Environmental engineering
Location: Lot 26 near Maverick Stadium

Engineering Research Building
Cost: $110 million
Approximate square feet: 228,000
Construction will begin in summer 2008.
Will accommodate Bioengineering, Computer Science engineering and the College of Science, including classrooms and research and teaching labs
Location: South side of UTA Boulevard, between College and Cooper streets

Engineering Lab Building
Cost: $22 million
Approximate square feet: 27,000
Third floor addition will accommodate Bioengineering, Industrial & Manufacturing Systems engineering, Computer Science engineering, Electrical engineering and Material Science engineering
Construction will begin in summer 2008.
Location: Current Engineering Lab Building on First Street

Center for Structural Engineering Research
Cost: $34 million
Approximate square feet: 84,000
Currently in design process
Slated to begin construction by the end of 2008
Research to take place in the building will include full-scale component testing of buildings, roads, bridges, dams, tunnels and natural disaster simulations
Location: S. MacArthur Boulevard and Interstate 30 in Grand Prairie

Pull Quote:
“All of these buildings will be important drives in recruiting top-notch faculty and new research scientists.”
John Hall
administration and campus operations vice president

Key Words: Engineering Buildings Construction College of Engineering Research Complex

Construction of four new engineering buildings signifies a giant step forward for the university.

After years of planning and garnering funding for the expansion of the Engineering program, the January ground breaking for the Civil Engineering Laboratory Building signaled the beginning of the university’s drive to become a major research school.

“This is definitely a major step forward in engineering and in our expansion of our research capabilities,” said university President James Spaniolo.

Building up the university’s research funding was on Spaniolo’s to-do list when he took the reigns as president in February 2004. The Engineering program was a piece of the puzzle that could boost promote university’s name.

“We have a very strong, large Engineering program. It is the third largest in the state in terms of enrollment, in terms of graduates,” Spaniolo said. “It’s a major strength of the university ... I think it is one of a number of initiatives that is propelling UT-Arlington forward.”

The new buildings present may opportunities, including increased research funding, a raise in enrollment and national recognition for the College of Engineering. The projects will also assist the university in raising its status in national rankings.

“All of these buildings will be important drives in recruiting top-notch faculty and new research scientists,” said John Hall, administration and campus operations vice president.

IN-STORY SUBHEAD: Aggressive Construction

Construction for the Civil Engineering Laboratory Building aggressively continues. The building will bring more lab and research space to the civil engineering program when its doors open in August, in time for fall classes.

“Typically, a building of this size takes around 10 months to a year to build, but we’re condensing it to seven months,” said Bryan Sims, building services associate director. “But it will be a very high-quality building. The quality of the building will not suffer.”

A series of design program meetings progressed between the engineering and architecture firms, university officials and civil engineering faculty to determine the needs of the different departments for the building, Sims said.

The end result is a $9.8 million facility that will include more than 26,000 square feet of asphalt-pavement, construction, Geotech and materials-structures labs.

IN-STORY SUBHEAD: Engineering Research Complex

Come May, when the phrase Engineering Research Complex is heard at the UT Board of Regents’ meeting, those words will represent two large projects — the construction of the new Engineering Research Building and the third floor addition to the Engineering Lab Building.

The Engineering Research Building will be built on the south side of UTA Boulevard between College and Cooper streets, Hall said.

Both buildings are currently in design development, said facilities management architect John Guelian.

The Engineering Research Building will encompass more than 228,000 square feet and have lab, classroom and research space solely for the Bioengineering, Computer Science engineering departments and he College of Science, Guelian said in an e-mail.

He said the research building design is still evolving but that “doesn’t mean it’s going to completely change. It will be minor details.” The period will last for several weeks.

The new 27,000 square feet for the Engineering Lab Building includes a third floor addition to the building and added space that will accommodate the Bioengineering, Industrial & Manufacturing Systems engineering, Computer Science engineering, Electrical engineering and Material Science engineering departments.

A small portion of the second floor and approximately half of the first floor in the current lab building will undergo changes. The building will still be open for classes while construction goes on, Guelian said.

The final designs are expected to go before the Regents in May for approval of the $110 million research building and $22 million lab building, Hall said.

“The new ERB and the expansion of ELB will enable us to have an engineering complex. There is more and more interdisciplinary research between engineering and science and so there is a science component to the ERB,” Spaniolo said. “We’re really talking about something that will be a significant step in terms of our facilities and ability to do research and ability to give students the best possible opportunities in the field of engineering.”

IN-STORY SUBHEAD: “Muscle Building”

Built on 3.2 acres of land donated from Hanson Pipe and Precast off of S. MacArthur Boulevard and Interstate 30 in Grand Prairie, the Center for Structural Engineering Research Building features a six-story-high testing facility and will be the only one of its type in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The structural research building will be designed by the Los Angeles architecture firm Zimmer Gunsul Frasca LLP, and Arlington-based Page Southerland Page Architects will take the lead and responsibilities for the construction of project.

The building, by the numbers, will include approximately 84,000 square feet of research space for full-scale component testing of buildings, roads, bridges, dams, tunnels, pipes and to simulate natural disasters.

The $34 million building — $25 million from the permanent university fund and $9 million from gifts, donations and in-kind contributions — had estimates done that anticipated a research funding increase of $5 million in five years, $10 million in 10 years, and $10 to $15 million in subsequent years, Hall said.

Of the 84,000 square feet, 50,000 will be a high bay material test facility, the largest of its kind in the U.S.

“With the aging infrastructure of our bridges across the country, we believe there are many opportunities for our research program to assist in addressing that,” Hall said.

The building is in the finishing touches of the document phase — a narrative of what the project will entail regarding design aspects. The phase will conclude in March with construction anticipated to begin by the end of 2008.

“I call it the ‘Muscle Building,’ ” Guelian said. “It makes a powerful statement architecturally and it looks stout and has a presence of permanence.”

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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 20 January 2009 04:35 PM )

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