October 8, 2008

Crews “top out” Engineering Building III

Construction crews “topped out” Engineering Building III on NC State's Centennial Campus on Sept. 30. (Photo: Nate DeGraff)

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Crews passed a construction milestone on the College's newest building on Sept. 30, lifting the final steel beam high in the air and nestling it in place atop the new Engineering Building III on Centennial Campus.

The “topping out” occurred about seven months after Gov. Mike Easley celebrated the groundbreaking of the new building, part of a larger construction effort to move the entire College to Centennial Campus. A “topping out” occurs when the final component of a building structure is installed, in this case a white steel beam bearing the NC State logo that had been signed by students, faculty and staff. The beam was put in place during a lunchtime ceremony at the work site.

The building, which will open in 2010, is the future home of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Joint UNC-NCSU Department of Biomedical Engineering. The 248,000-square-foot building will include approximately 80 laboratories, a wind tunnel facility, eight classrooms, and offices for faculty and graduate students.

Speakers at the ceremony included Dr. Louis A. Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering; Allen Jones, senior vice president of Skanska USA Building, which is managing construction at the site; Mark Collins, Skanska's project manager and a graduate of the College; Dr. H. Troy Nagle, head of the Joint UNC-NCSU Department of Biomedical Engineering; and Dr. Richard Gould, head of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Once the new building is occupied, two-thirds of the College of Engineering will be located on Centennial Campus.

Construction on the remaining buildings, Engineering Buildings IV and V, could begin in 2010 and wrap up in 2012 if the General Assembly approves funding for the buildings next year.

Engineering Building IV will house College administration and the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Engineering Building V will house the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Nuclear Engineering.

The buildings on Main Campus vacated by the engineering departments will be renovated to accommodate other colleges within the university.

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