by Alec Williams
The CMU campus grew a little bigger on Tuesday Sept. 6 when ground was broken on a plot of land that will become a new building for the engineering department. The event was put together by CMU and its board of trustees in an effort to ceremoniously begin its construction.
“First and foremost, it represents our commitment to the relationship with our students. It is incumbent upon the university to provide students with the facilities and technology to support them in reaching their education goals,” CMU President Tim Foster said in a press release. The building, which will be 68,700 square feet upon completion, is going to be located at 1410 N. Seventh Street and will be CMU’s first building to reach Seventh Street in its continuing expansion.
“The inspiration came from a lot of different sources and a lot of different people,” building architect Jon Grody said. “It’s probably gone through a dozen iterations already to get it looking the way it does.”
The building’s construction serves as another sign of partnership between CMU and University of Colorado Boulder, “It is also another piece in our partnership with CU Boulder to to deliver engineering programs to our students and provide west slope engineers for west slope businesses,” Foster said. CMU engineering students are given the opportunity to transfer to CU Boulder and finish their degree after they have gained the basic knowledge at CMU. At the groundbreaking, officials of the university were joined by representatives from the John McConnell Math and Science Center, a non-profit organization that encourages Grand Junction youth to find a passion math and science. The new engineering building will also be another home for the organization, 14,000 square feet of it.
Upon completion the building is expected to have undergraduate engineering labs, classrooms and project labs. Currently CMU is hoping to earn Green Globes certification, an accolade that signifies a sustainable construction project. The engineering building is expected to be completed in the fall of 2017.
