UAF makes plans for engineering facility (Chennai Engineering Colleges - newsminer)

Chennai Engineering CollegesEarly design plans for the $108.6 million building — a five-story, roughly 117,000-square-foot facility that will link the Duckering and Bunnell buildings — were approved by the University of Alaska Board of Regents this week.

Engineering GraduationIt’s another step forward for a project that will provide space and updated technology to a department that has nearly doubled in size since 2006. The existing engineering office and lab space is in Duckering, which was originally built in 1964.“Right now it’s pretty nearly an impossible working situation for a lot of our high-profile projects,” said Doug Goering, dean of the UAF College of Engineering and Mines.The Legislature has appropriated about half the funding needed for the building — including $46 million during this year — which is seen as an encouraging sign of commitment for the project.The building is in a preliminary design phase, which will continue through next winter, with construction expected to begin in summer 2013. With full funding, the project would be completed in fall 2015. The new building would connect the adjacent Bunnell and Duckering buildings, using an existing pie-shaped parking lot between the two structures, said project manager Mike Sheets. The building, which will tower over its older neighbors, would also encapsule Schaible Auditorium.