Brown caps off School of Engineering research building

The facility boasts three stories and 80,000 square feet.
The facility boasts three stories and 80,000 square feet. | File photo

Brown University recently marked the topping off of its new School of Engineering research building in a ceremony that allowed attendees to sign one of the building’s uppermost structural beams and featured remarks from Brown officials and Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza.

“I’m delighted to be here as we mark a milestone in the rise of this wonderful new building,” Brown President Christina Paxson said. “With the signing of this beam today, Brown takes another step forward toward realizing a key piece of our vision for Brown engineering — a state-of-the-art home for a community that is poised to discover, innovate and apply new knowledge to the world.”

The facility boasts three stories and 80,000 square feet, as well as lab space designed to encourage collaborative, cross-disciplinary research and capabilities for nanoscale and biomedical engineering.

“We want to design new materials — lighter metals and ceramics — that will make cars and airplanes work safely and efficiently,” Engineering School dean Larry Larson said. “We’re going to be doing chemical research that will allow us to pull toxins out of the environment. We’re going to have labs that allow us to build new kinds of biological devices that will give people longer and healthier lives. This building is built not only to be great for the science that we want to do today, but also the science we want to do in the coming decades.”