New office space at the Kansas University engineering school will be named for KU alumni involved with the international engineering firm Black & Veatch, officials announced Friday.

The new offices for the department of civil, environmental and architectural engineering will be named the Veatch-Robinson Complex.

The name honors the careers of three men:

• The late Nathan Thomas “Tom” Veatch Jr., who graduated from KU in 1909 and 1924, the co-founder of Black & Veatch.
• Thomas B. Robinson, who graduated from KU in 1939, a former Black & Veatch board chairman who lives in Prairie Village.
• John H. “Jack” Robinson, Thomas Robinson’s brother, who graduated from KU in 1949, a former Black & Veatch board chairman who lives in Mission Hills.

Tom Robinson donated $200,000 to the project, as did Jane Veatch Barber, Lawrence, the daughter of Tom Veatch. Other Veatch and Robinson family members and friends donated the remainder of the money for the $600,000 project.

The 3,000-square-foot facility is being constructed as an extension to the west side of the second floor of Learned Hall, above the wind tunnel laboratory. It will have faculty offices, a conference room and administrative office space for the department. Construction began in July and is expected to be complete in December.

Black & Veatch, which has its headquarters in Overland Park, has 2,000 employees worldwide.