Statesman

Issue date: 10/1/08 Section: News

An image of what the finished Civil Engineering Building will look like.

The new Civil Engineering Building will leave little to the imagination. With plans to be constructed largely from glass, anyone who happens to be passing by will get to look into the building, which is scheduled to be completed during the spring of 2010, and see what's happening.

Glass isn't the only interesting design aspect of the new building, which will be two stories, 34,000 gross square ft. and cost $15 million, according to a University Public Relations press release.

"There will be two Gantry Cranes in the building," said John Rashid associate director of facilities management. "What these cranes will do is actually pick up specimens that they are testing, be that bridge specimens or different pieces of concrete, and roll them into the lab."

To be able to fit large objects into the building to study, it will have a large door, similar in size to a door on an airplane hangar. To actually bring the specimens inside, the Gantry Cranes will move along hydraulic tracks from one end of the building to the other, Rashid said.

Just like the new Labovitz School of Business and Economics, the design of the Civil Engineering building is meant to have a lower environmental impact and the university hopes that the building will become Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified (LEED).

With the groundbreaking well underway, the university can now officially offer civil engineering as a major, a first for UMD.

Other than creating a new building to help realize the goal of a College of Civil Engineering, UMD has brought in several new faculty members and plans on hiring up to five more over the next few years, according to Dr. Andrea Schokker, head of the new civil engineering department.

"There's a big need for civil engineers across the country, but especially in this area," Schokker said. "There are relatively few civil engineering programs in the state."

Students are already lining up to be in the new program. The first civil engineering class was expected to attract 25 students, but the number has swelled to 50, Schokker said.

Fifty may seem like a small number of students for a program offered at a university the size of UMD, but until the new building is complete, the school does not have the resources to offer all the classes required in the civil engineering track.

"We need to have the labs in the new buildings before we can do the junior and senior level classes," Schokker said. "The 50 freshman will be the first graduating class in 2012."

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