At his January 31st State of the University address delivered in Portland (full text here), OSU President Ed Ray announced that the University has raised funds to construct a new engineering building. This building will be named f
or Pete and Rosalie Johnson. Mr. Johnson is a 1955 chemical engineering alum. The Johnson’s $7M gift, plus gifts from an anonymous donor ($10M) and many others, totals $20M. The University is now working toward securing $20M in State of Oregon bonds as match. If OSU is successful in securing the State match, it is expected that the building will be about 60,000 ft2.
OSU will begin a facility design process in the next few months. The majority of faculty in this building will be from the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering. Some space will be reserved for additional engineering faculty to allow the co-location of interdisciplinary teams of faculty or faculty who may use common equipment. The building also will serve as home to college-wide recruitment and retention programs, especially targeted at pre-engineering students.
OSU is developing a contract with an architect/engineering firm to help in the development of a facilities plan. The plan will (1) evaluate existing space, (2) develop strategies for the next building (or two), and (3) determine the best use of existing space.