KU officials break ground at new enigneering buildling site
The lab building will be 35,000 square feet and partially funded by private donations. Enlarge video
A new 34,600-square-foot engineering building on the Kansas University campus will house laboratories for research in a number of multi-disciplinary areas.
On Friday, KU officials broke ground on the engineering campus for the new building, primarily paid for using more than $14 million in federal government dollars. The engineering school and KU are contributing $6.5 million in matching funds for the project from private funds.
No classrooms or offices will be housed in the new yet-unnamed building, said Glen Marotz, associate engineering dean and principal investigator for the grant project.
The building, which will be constructed near Learned Hall, will house all kinds of research — work there will be done on biofuels, drug delivery, artificial knees and much more.
Turning the first shovels of dirt on Kansas University’s Engineering Complex Lawn at Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony are, from left, Linda Sims, Robb Sorem, Brandon DeKosky, Glen Marotz, Stuart Bell and KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little. The new building will house laboratories for multidisciplinary research.
“What could be better than that?” Marotz said. “What could be better than trying to improve the human condition?”
The building’s exterior and interior will be home to new sustainable building research. Therefore, he said, as passers-by look at the building on day, they may see grates over the windows, and the next, the grates may be gone, and the windows may all be replaced with new ones.
“You can even use the building itself as an experiment,” Marotz said.
In line with federal stimulus guidelines, construction is moving quickly on the building, Marotz said, and could be completed as soon as October 2011.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, KU student Brandon DeKosky, a senior who received a $250,000 research fellowship from the Hertz Foundation, said that the building would open up “tremendous opportunities” for students.
“On a fundamental level, it will provide the lab space and updated facilities and enable us to conduct cutting-edge research on the international stage.”
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somedude20 (anonymous) says…
Now how do you break the ground? Did a gaggle of fat people stand there for too long? All well, they had better fix that ground before they start to build otherwise the ground won't support the building
The_Big_B (anonymous) says…
They should name it after somebody who defrauded a bunch of people out of their savings ....
oh, wait! They did that at the football field already.
banksie (anonymous) replies…
Is there somewhere I can read about what he did?
oneeye_wilbur (anonymous) says…
Drug delivery is a great idea. Just a few blocks down from the dorms. Shouldn't be any shortage of supply and/or demand.
oneeye_wilbur (anonymous) says…
I like it that they can put bars on the windows. Can that idea be expanded to the city limits? LIke a fence around Lawrence. And then the next day take the fence down and plant sunflowers.
The building can be an experiment...Hate to tell this Marotz guy, but KU is an experiment.