North of Kyle Field, Texas A&M’s hotel and conference center, and the Cain parking garage, groundbreaking takes place next month on a new academic building.
That’s after the A&M system’s board of regents on Thursday approved “The 21st Century Classroom Building”, which will be built at the corner of Wellborn Road and Old Main.
The system’s interim facilities director, Pete Schmid, said the project pays homage to its location, formerly “The Grove”, with a covered outdoor area.
Schmid says this building addresses a need for large teaching areas. Classrooms will accommodate a total of over 2,200 seats, provide three teaching “arenas”, active learning classrooms, tiered classrooms, a large lecture hall and smaller study spaces.
This will become the new home of A&M’s Center for Teaching Excellence, Instructional Technology Services and Instructional Media Services.
The $85 million dollar project was originally budgeted for $75 million. The system’s chief financial officer, Billy Hamilton, told regent Tony Buzbee of Houston the university found the additional money to build out what was going to be shell space.
Buzbee then asked system administrators to get the percentage of campus enrollment growth compared to how much money is being spent on new buildings.
Weather permitting, completion is expected in May of 2020.
Click HERE to read and download background information about “The 21st Century Classroom Building”.
