UW-Madison officials on Thursday broke ground on the university’s new engineering building, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. Set to open in 2028, the $420 million, 395,000-square-foot facility will allow the College of Engineering to boost its enrollment by 1,000 students for a total population of 6,000 students.
The university has been working to upgrade nearly 100-year-old utilities to serve the new eight-floor building, and it will need to raze an 85-year-old former state highway lab at the corner of Engineering Drive and Randall Avenue in the months to come to make room for the new building.
UW-Madison has been planning or requesting a new engineering building for over six years, but political turmoil has stymied the project since the GOP-controlled legislative budget-writing committee failed to include the facility in its final budget plan in June 2023.
UW-Madison and other UW leaders advocated for the building with the Legislature in the six months that followed — efforts that culminated with a controversial deal that saw lawmakers trade the classifications of some diversity, equity and inclusion employees for top UW priorities.
Lawmakers subsequently approved the new engineering building in March 2024, but last December the project fell back into limbo, with Republicans citing dismay at their lack of voice in some of the building’s planned uses as well as price increases for the new facility and other UW projects.
The overall cost of the new facility has increased by $73 million over the last two years — about $29 million of which can be attributed to design changes needed to meet the original scope of the project and fulfill the promise of 1,000 new students. Another $43 million will go toward a business partnership floor that can be rented out to private companies seeking connection with students they might eventually hire. Those entities will help pay for that portion of the building.
