Sep 28, 2011 - Claremont, CA -

Harvey Mudd College will host a groundbreaking ceremony for its new teaching and learning building on Oct. 1 at 1:30 p.m. at the construction site, adjacent to Braun Liquidambar Mall, campus center.

Featured speakers will include Trustee Wayne Drinkward '73, Alumni Association Board of Governors President John Lulejian ‘90, chemistry Professor Kerry Karukstis, Associate Dean of Administration Jerry Van Hecke '61, and student leader Margaret Brier '12.  Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe will host the event. Members of the HMC community and Claremont City Council will be in attendance.

The new building—the first academic facility to be constructed on campus in nearly 20 years—will support HMC's unique blend of collaborative and interdisciplinary teaching and learning. At a cost of about $43 million, the 70,000-square-foot structure will feature flexible and technologically advanced classrooms, lecture halls, faculty offices and public spaces to support the widest range of pedagogies and learning styles. It will double HMC's total teaching and learning space and provide much-needed performance venues and dedicated writing and multimedia centers.

The forward-looking, “green” design incorporates an innovative BubbleDeck structural system, potentially the first of its kind in the United States, that provides an exceptional degree of strength, freedom and flexibility in architectural design. At present, the new building is on track to receive the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Gold certification and LEED Platinum is in sight. The building is scheduled to open its doors for the 2013-2014 academic year.

The new facility was designed to better equip HMC to lead the way in innovative science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, an essential element of the strategic vision developed when Klawe became president in 2006.

For more information about the teaching and learning building, visit www.hmc.edu/building.

View video of the groundbreaking ceremony.