Distinguished guests and administrators break ground for the new James A. Clark Engineering building groundbreaking ceremony on Nov. 21, 2014.
This fall, students, faculty and visitors will start noticing major progress in the construction of A. James Clark Hall, said William Olen, the University of Maryland’s capital projects director.
Construction for Clark Hall, which will stand adjacent to the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building, began June 15, and officials anticipate builders will complete the six-story, state-of-the-art teaching and research facility by June 2017, Olen said.
“Contractors have so far installed the foundations system and utilities,” Olen said. “The majority of what they’ll see this year is the installation of the building’s concrete frame, which will continue into next spring.”
A combination of private donations and state funds totaling more than $170 million are funding the project. Contributions from A. James Clark and Robert Fischell supplied $20 million in funding, while the rest of the budget stems from this state, Olen said. The state has yet to house a facility similar to Clark Hall, he added.
“I don’t believe there’s another building focused on this type of science,” Olen said. “Especially not one this size.”
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Clark Hall will accommodate the entire bioengineering department, which welcomed 92 incoming freshmen into the program this year, said Casey Forman, ambassador coordinator of the engineering school. Forman said bioengineering is the second most sought after major within the school, although it doesn’t have its own centralized space on the campus.
“The labs now are situated in Kim,” Forman said. “But once Clark is finished, we will have a home exclusively in Clark.”
Sophomore bioengineering major Kellen Weigand said it will be nice for the department to have its own space.
“Right now the department is kind of all over the place,” Weigand said. “Other majors have places to congregate and come together … it’s kind of annoying that we don’t.”
With more than 11,000 square feet of laboratory space with updated equipment and 7,300 square feet dedicated to new classrooms, Clark Hall will dominate a large section of the campus, Forman said. She added that some of the new technology will enable rapid prototyping capabilities associated with modern bioengineering research.
“By continuing to develop the campus, it shows that Maryland is encouraging people to use the machines and the equipment in their research,” Forman said.
The Clark School ranks 16th in the world for research, Forman said, noting the new building will likely cause the school’s current standing to rise.
“I believe that with the new building and research opportunities available our ranking will absolutely move upward,” Forman said. “The creativity that can occur during research with the new equipment is absurd.”
While many students in the bioengineering department eagerly await the coming changes, other students said all buildings on the campus deserve the same degree of attention.
“The science buildings on campus are hideous,” said Andrea Ortiz, a junior psychology and family science major. “I hate how there are so many nice, new buildings and so many ugly ones, because it just doesn’t look synchronized.”
But Olen said the sheer enormity of the facility will impress all onlookers.
“Folks on this campus will get to see the whole thing literally come out of the ground,” Olen said. “It’s spectacular.”
