Cronkite Header

New addition to ASU school of construction is its own lesson in building

Email this story
Print this story
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

By Colton Krolak

TEMPE –

COLTON KROLAK/CRONKITE NEWS: ASU’s College Avenue Commons has officially opened its doors. The new $54.5 million facility is the new addition to the Del E. Webb School of Construction, which is a program of the Fulton School of Engineering.

MORGAN OLSEN/UNIVERSITY VICE PRESIDENT AND CFO: What we have here is about a $54.5 million investment, about 137,000 gross square feet, and it’s an investment in the future of ASU.

COLTON KROLAK/CRONKITE NEWS: ASU says the building itself will be used to teach students. The building boasts several impressive technologies such as 3-D printers and walls that open to reveal the inner workings of the building.

Not only will the building be used to house university classrooms, the college also plans to use it as a multifaceted hub.

JAY SILVERBERG/CO-DESIGN PRINCIPAL,GENSLER: This becomes kind of a vertically integrated community that brings the Del E. Web School of Construction, the university classroom component, university tours and the Follett marketplace together.

COLTON KROLAK/CRONKITE NEWS: Not only will this building be used as an educational tool, but it will also be the first thing that future ASU students see when visiting campus, which ASU hopes will inspire future students to come to school in Tempe.

DAVID BURGE/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ADMISSION SERVICES: We need a quality space. We need a space that communicates that we’re technologically sophisticated, that we are organized, that we’re intentional with our educational offerings, and really in the end, it’s our job just simply to show off the wonderful things that are already happening in the academic units and student affairs units on campus.

COLTON KROLAK/CRONKITE NEWS: According to ASU, the building, which began construction January of last year, used no state money to build.