With completion expected in the fall of 2017, a $110 million project to expand and renovate the Patrick F. Taylor Hall broke ground on the LSU campus today. When it’s finished, officials say it will be among the largest free-standing engineering buildings in the nation, with the LSU College of Engineering seeing its space in the building expand from about 306,000 square feet currently to more than 462,000 square feet.
LSU President F. King Alexander, who was joined at the groundbreaking today by a wide range of local, state and university officials, including Gov. Bobby Jindal, says the expanded hall will also help Louisiana meet the growing skilled workforce demand.
“We are expecting to see an increase of more than 150,000 engineering jobs nationally by 2022, and this state-of-the-art facility and our expertly trained graduates are just a few examples of how LSU provides much-needed solutions for not only our state, but the nation’s workforce and innovation needs,” Alexander says in a prepared release.
The LSU College of Engineering currently graduates roughly 650 bachelor’s graduates per year, ranking it in the top 10% nationally for graduates. It has also experienced a 50% increase in undergraduate enrollment in the past five years, Alexander says, making LSU’s College of Engineering the fifth-fastest growing in the country.
Estimates published by the Louisiana Workforce Commission and the Louisiana Board of Regents suggest that Louisiana needs to increase the number of engineering and construction management graduates statewide by at least 30% per year, or roughly 330 more graduates per year statewide across all institutions, just to meet current demand.
In what LSU says has been its most successful fundraising effort to date, the university raised approximately $55 million in private funds for the expansion and renovation. Those funds are being matched by the state, which has committed $55 million in capital outlay funds for the complex.
“We made this commitment to improve learning environments for students because we know our higher education system is critical in helping us ensure that we have a skilled workforce in Louisiana,” says Jindal in a prepared statement.
The largest single donation in the fundraising campaign came from Phyllis Taylor, the widow of Patrick F. Taylor and chair of the foundation bearing his name. Taylor gave $15 million toward the renovation and expansion. Today, Tulane University announced that Phyllis Taylor is also donating $15 million to establish the Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking at the New Orleans school. —Steve Sanoski
