After almost a year of construction, the Penn State College of Engineering West 2 project celebrated the completed installation of all the main building structural steels in early October. The path to reach this milestone was especially challenging due to major material and labor shortages during the pandemic, but the team persevered.
To commemorate this important milestone, the final structural piece was painted white, signed by members of the Penn State community as well as construction and project team members, then hoisted into place with a camera attached to record the special moment.
The West 2 Building will provide flexible classrooms, multi-use design studios, “cornerstone to capstone” makerspaces, high bay research labs, faculty offices and research cores to benefit multiple engineering disciplines. This will create a singular programmatic magnet for research, making, testing and prototyping from a broad range of disciplines to become the innovation and making hub of the College of Engineering.
The West 2 Building is tracking LEED Gold, with an estimated completion date in 2022.