University of Michigan-Dearborn took another step toward constructing a new Engineering Lab Building on Thursday, as the Board of Regents approved the schematic design for the project.
“The new ELB will be a landmark building on campus, one that is critical to providing a 21st-century engineering education,” says UM-Dearborn Chancellor Daniel Little, noting that enrollment in the College of Engineering and Computer Science has nearly doubled since 2010.
The building will include modern research and teaching facilities that will allow UM-Dearborn to create forward-looking academic programs that promote innovation and collaboration. The $90 million project was initially approved in September 2016. SmithGroupJJR Detroit designed the facility.
It will include teaching labs designed to facilitate entrepreneurial problem solving, encourage multidisciplinary cooperation in the context of 21st-century engineering instruction, and provide students with new collaboration and project spaces.
In addition to student education, the ELB will provide opportunities for pioneering research partnerships with industry. And it will allow for expanded K-12 and community outreach efforts, with a focus on women and minorities.
One third of project funding will come through the state of Michigan’s capital outlay budget, one third from bond financing, with the remainder from individual, corporate and university support.
Construction, which will begin in 2018, is scheduled to be complete in the summer of 2020. Once finished, the new facility will include 123,000 square feet of space — 57,000 square feet of renovation and 66,000 of new building construction.
