What the opening of a new, $88M Penn State building means to the College of Engineering
Anthony Atchley, the acting dean of Penn State’s College of Engineering, warned the crowd he was about to go off-script.
Among several hundred alumni, faculty members, officials and politicians — many dressed in suits — Atchley mused on various conversations he heard involving memories of past academic buildings. And here, inside the new $88.2 million Engineering Design and Innovation Building (EDIB) on the west end of campus, Atchley asked the crowd to think about just how much this building will still mean to so many, decades from now.
“That’s a span of over 100 years of impact that the building has on people’s experiences,” Atchley added.
Penn State celebrated a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday afternoon, one heralding in the opening of the EDIB, formerly known as West 2, that’s part of a $1 billion revitalization effort on the west end of campus. The hope is that the building’s impact is as immediate as it is long-lasting, with 105,000 square feet — the size of five Aldi supermarkets — and cutting edge-resources that can only help an Engineering program that already ranks nationally among the top 25.
More than 1,300 tons of steel, 750 tons of rebar and 575 truckloads of concrete went into creating the “world-class facility,” Atchley said. Self-guided tours of the building revealed four stories of floor-to-ceiling windows, with a view overlooking Mount Nittany from the top floor, and with enough room for non-engineering departments to host classes and for students to work in some parts of the building 24/7.
“There’s nothing like it in the world,” said engineering professor Matt Parkinson, the director of The Learning Factory, a hands-on facility housed inside the EDIB.
According to the university, about 2,100 square feet of the building are devoted to general purpose classroom space while another 8,200 square feet are set aside in support of research. The building also includes 11 total classrooms, a high-bay research space, a number of maker’s spaces and collaborative areas — all for a college that’s grown more than 40% in 15 years. The EDIB also boasts expanded areas for The Learning Factory and the Factory for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) Lab, in addition to housing the School of Engineering Design and Innovation.
Penn State is still in the process of moving into the building, with machinery and other equipment that still must be added. The university expects the EDIB to be fully ready by this fall.
“For decades, others have come to Penn State to learn how we provide engineering education,” said Justin Schwartz, interim executive vice president and provost. “And now with this building, they’re going to keep coming because we expect to keep leading.”
Improvements to the west end of campus aren’t finished just yet. Another engineering building, West 1, is slated for completion next spring and, when finished, it’s set to be nearly triple the size of the EDIB. But, on Friday, the celebration still centered around the newly constructed building — 77% of which was funded by the state — that will uniquely allow Penn State’s engineers to learn a concept in a classroom and then literally test it shortly thereafter in the same area.
Before the Nittany Lion mascot helped officials cut the ribbon with a comically oversized scissors, university President Neeli Bendapudi leaned toward an engineering student who was set to address the crowd. While Atchley reflected on the memories that buildings create, saying students today could be recounting their memories to new students in 2060, Bendapudi playfully elbowed the student speaker sitting next to her.
The student smiled. Then addressed the crowd, with hair that was partially dyed blue and matched her shirt.
Her message? This building will allow students to dream bigger — and it’s “going to benefit others.”
