Schweitzer Engineering Hall is still in the construction phase with a planned completion date of Fall 2026.
Jason Peschel, school of design and construction director, said the construction has been proceeding as planned.
“The design-build team have not encountered any major issues on site,” Peschel said. “The project is progressing as the schedule has indicated. No hiccups to date.”
The construction phase of the project began in mid-May with the earthwork, he said. This mostly entails removing soil from the site.
“As they progress right now [the construction team] is in their footing and foundation phase of the project, where they’re forming and reinforcing the concrete for that,” Peschel said. “Once completed, Schweitzer Engineering Hall will be a hub for students and will be focused on supporting student success efforts within the college. The building will house the learning center, career services, advising and the club hub.”
Once completed, Schweitzer Engineering Hall will be a hub for students and will be focused on supporting student success efforts within the college, he said. The hall will house the learning center, career services and the office for the college-level club advisor.
“The idea then being having all those services in one place. Go see your advisor, they can easily recommend ‘go to the learning center right down the hall,’ or ‘go talk to career services about getting an internship,’” Peschel said. “There’s a handful of teaming spaces or workspaces similar to what’s in the Chinook or other places on campus where students can work on projects or whatever there, and then a fair amount more in the open collaborative hangout type of space for students and faculty to engage and interact.”
Peschel said fundraising efforts began in Fall 2021 and the building was conceptualized about a year before.
“It’s come to life not only because of the normal state funding that one would get for a capital project but also through the generosity of donors and alumni of the college, so kind of a special piece to see you have alumni and industry partners that want to see a project like this on campus and want to see it be successful,” he said.
Shelley Pressley, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture associate dean, said $40 million was raised through a public-private partnership campaign.
“This is one of the first times in WSU history when a building has been funded using this process. One of the largest donations was from Schweitzer Engineering,” Pressley said. “We were able to raise $40 million and then we took that to the state of Washington and asked for matching funding for an additional $40 million.”
Peschel said students returning to campus requires the contractor to make sure they are planning the construction properly and making sure their site logistics make sense in terms of bringing materials to the site. Still, it should not be much of a challenge for the contractors.
“If you’ve been over here on this part of campus you’ll see they’ve got not just the building site where they’re doing construction but also some additional space also fenced off where they’ve got their job trailers and everything else and subsequently have closed down the sidewalk on the east side of the street to make sure there’s not any pedestrian traffic,” he said. “In anticipation of students coming back to campus soon, the design-build team and WSU Facilities have worked to address pedestrian and vehicular traffic. The bus stop has been removed now relying on existing stops to the north and south of the construction site. Due to the rerouting of traffic and safety fencing pedestrians cannot walk into the site.”
The classes that will be taught in the hall when completed will be engineering classes, Pressley said. In particular, some of the computer science classes, which have large enrollments, will be taught there.
“We have three different size classes in this building, there’s a large one … one medium sized classroom and then we have several smaller hands-on classrooms which will support our Engineering 120 class,” Pressley said. “[Engineering 120] is our introduction to engineering class and we will be teaching several of the senior capstone design classes in those [smaller classrooms].”
Those who are interested in learning more about the hall can visit the Voiland College website, where there is a live webcam showing the construction’s progress, she said. In addition, there is a model of the building in Carpenter Hall. Students can also reach out to her or Peschel if they would like more information on the hall and its construction.
“We want the students to see this being built, to understand the process and to be able to take tours of the construction site,” Pressley said.
