Blinn College Trustees Take Next Steps On Two Major Building Projects

Expansion of Blinn College locations continues on the RELLIS and Brenham campuses.

That’s after Blinn’s board of trustees this week approved two contracts.

One is for designing Blinn’s second academic building at RELLIS. Construction of more classrooms and faculty offices is projected to be completed in time for the start of the fall 2022 semester.

And construction starts next month in Brenham on a more than 35 million dollar science, technology, engineering, and innovation building. That’s after Blinn trustees awarded a construction contract. That facility is scheduled to open in time for the fall 2021 semester.

Additional information from Blinn College:

The Blinn College District Board of Trustees approved a guaranteed maximum price for a science, technology, engineering, and innovation (STEI) building to be built on the Brenham Campus and authorized the College to negotiate and execute a contract for an architect to design a new academic building at the RELLIS Campus during its regular February meeting.

The board approved a $27.7 million guaranteed maximum price for the construction of the STEI building. With the inclusion of soft costs estimates, this brings the project’s total budget to $35.5 million. Funds for the project are available in the 2019 series bond funds and reserves.

Located at Prairie Lea Street between College Avenue and 5th Street, the 72,000-square-foot STEI building includes 17,000 square feet in laboratory space and a 3,000-square-foot innovation lab. The facility will provide expanded anatomy and physiology, chemistry, geology, microbiology, and physics lab space, as well as simulation space for Blinn’s Vocational Nursing Program and engineering labs for use by the Texas A&M Engineering Academy at Blinn-Brenham. The facility also will include a computer science classroom and information technology laboratory, and a two-story engineering technology laboratory designed for drone repair and development. Construction will begin in March and the facility is scheduled to open in time for the Fall 2021 semester.

The board also authorized administrators to negotiate and execute a contract with M. Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates for professional architectural services related to the programming, planning, design, and construction of the proposed Phase II building on the RELLIS Campus.