The University embarks today on one of its largest academic building projects to reshape the way students in the College of Engineering learn.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the major renovations of Patrick F. Taylor Hall begins at 11 a.m. and will be followed by a luncheon in the main corridor of the building.
Gov. Bobby Jindal and University administrators will attend the ceremony, and all students, faculty and staff are welcome to attend according to the college’s website.
The renovations to the building will add 60 more faculty offices, new equipment to all of the laboratories and an extension of about 80,000 square feet for chemical engineering students, said College of Engineering Dean Richard Koubek.
Koubek said earlier this year the $105 million renovations to the building will better facilitate group work for students and provide more space for the college, which boasts steadily increasing enrollment numbers. He said the renovations will update the space and allow more interactive hands-on work for students.
Half of the funding for the project was raised last year during the college’s “Breaking New Ground” campaign, which the state then matched.
LSU President F. King Alexander said at the LSU Board of Supervisors’ October meeting the project is the University’s largest non-athletic undertaking. The building now stands at about 168,000 square feet and will be nearly doubled by the time construction is expected to be finished in 2017.
The college has the largest number of undergraduates at the University, according to the Office of Budget and Planning, with about 3,400 students. The school’s enrollment also increased by about 15 percent this fall.
However, despite the fact the renovations will displace some classes, environmental engineering sophomore Noel Philley said they will not negatively affect her time at the University.
“What they are doing is they are going to close one wing, and the classes that would be there will be moved to other places in the building,” Philley said. “It won’t be an inconvenience to student. Not all of our classes are in PFT anyway.”
Philley said some students may feel shortchanged because they will graduate before the building is finished. But as graduates and students, they are all a part of the University, and it’s helping make things better for future engineers.
Because she is a double major studying both environmental and chemical engineering, Philley said she will still attend the University after building is done and looks forward to using the college’s new facilities.
Groundbreaking on PFT largest non-athletic construction project
November 16, 2014