UMass Lowell has announced the breaking of ground for the construction of a new 69,000 square foot building that will house three departments in health and social sciences.
The University has seen nearly 30% growth in undergraduates since 2007 and the new building will have psychology, nursing and criminal justice programs.
The new Health and Social Sciences Building, when completed in 2013, will have enough space to serve the requirements of 140 faculty members and 900 students. The new building will have enough space for the class rooms, specialized labs, offices for teaching staff, modeled hospital rooms and other health-care set ups and research space for social sciences. The building will also have conference space for project related works and an atrium to encourage student faculty interaction. The new building will have energy saving features such as ventilation for natural light penetration to cut down electricity usage, landscaping that does not require water supply and energy conserving climate controls.
Architectural design for the building is supplied by Cambridge Seven Associates. Gilbane Building will remain the general contractor for the project and the real estate construction segment of the state DCAM will manage the project. The construction will provide around 800 construction related job opportunities.
Source: http://www.uml.edu/