Science and Engineering Hall Groundbreaking Ceremony

This past Thursday the University broke ground at the location for the future Science and Engineering Hall. GW President Steven Knapp, faculty, students, and neighborhood partners took part in the special ceremony that occurred in the now open lot on H and 22^nd Streets NW at the site of the old University Parking Garage.

With an expected completion date of 2015, the new building will have 400,000 square feet above grade and 290,000 square feet of space for teaching and research laboratories for faculty and students. Not only will faculty and students of the Columbian College and School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) be conducting research in the new building, but so will researchers from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The Science and Engineering Hall will be the first new building the School of Engineering and Applied Science has received in more than 50 years. One reason for building this new facility is that the current classroom space for the SEAS is spread over multiple locations around campus and includes many outdated classrooms and labs.

Despite losing the University Parking Garage, GW will still maintain a minimum of 2,800 parking spaces around campus at various lots and garages. The new building will have 380 parking spaces underground, something very important in an area already lacking in parking.

At a cost of $275 million, the new building comes at a time when the cash strapped University is already more than $1 billion in debt. Fortunately, GW will avoid slipping further into debt, as the new building will be financed by lease payments from The Avenue apartment complex, research contracts, and philanthropic gifts from the GW community.


Click here to view photos from the ground breaking ceremony.