UNIVERSITY PARK
Amy Pritchett, Penn State’s department head of aerospace engineering, said she knew students would embrace the university’s $228 million engineering building the first day it opened to the public.
Her first hint? She had found the first-floor lounge area filled with students — including a few taking a nap. “The students have already moved in,” she said with a smile.
Pritchett’s anecdote was met with laughter from more than 200 attendees at Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, which ushered in the official opening of what is now the largest academic building on campus. The Engineering Collaborative Research and Education (ECoRE) Building is 290,000 square feet, large enough to fit more than 2.5 buildings the size of Old Main.
A central skylight brightens much of the facility on the west side of campus, and floor-to-ceiling windows offer scenic views of the IM Fields on the upper floors. More than 12,000 pieces of furniture — and 3,687 chairs — are scattered within the mammoth structure, and visitors are first greeted by a first-floor lounge with chairs and tables for studying (and sleeping).
But it’s obviously not the views and chairs that sparked the vision to create a building that’s more than 25% larger than the Pegula Ice Arena. ECoRE houses four engineering departments — civil and environmental, acoustics, aerospace, architectural — and provides more cutting-edge lab spaces, classrooms and offices than the College of Engineering has ever before seen.
“We really need to be competitive when we recruit and retain our very best faculty, and that is going to be a critical piece of why they come here,” Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi said Friday, referring to ECoRE.
The new building includes five floors and a basement, in addition to three mezzanine floors with offices. Nine general-purpose classrooms are included in the building and, like the first-floor cafe, they’ll open to students in the spring. (Classes hosted there will not be limited to engineering either, allowing those with other majors to also utilize the space.)
One of the most important features of the building is the more than 50,000 square feet in research spaces, with many of the specialized spaces found in the basement. Glass walls line the hallways there, allowing visitors to see some of the work that goes on behind the scenes.
In one basement lab, Penn State constructed what essentially amounts to a wind tunnel inside a soundproof room — formally known as an “Aero Anechoic Chamber Flow Through” — to help measure, for example, how loud a helicopter’s rotors might be. In another lab, temperatures can get down to as low as negative-8 degrees Fahrenheit to help test ways to reduce or eliminate icing on planes. Another lab features a new flight simulator.
Dozens of labs are spread throughout the building, and plenty of potential world-changing projects are going on within those labs. That’s no exaggeration. Among the projects is Penn State’s collaboration with NASA and others on “Dragonfly,” a rotocraft whose mission is to explore Saturn’s moon Titan. It’s expected to launch in 2028 and should arrive on Titan by 2034.
“Engineering researchers and educators are grappling with some of the biggest challenges of our time as we advance our local, state, national and international understanding of issues such as climate resilience, space systems, cyber security, artificial intelligence and human health,” said Tonya L. Peeples, dean of the College of Engineering. “This building ... represents an investment in the future of problem solving and innovation and an investment in the future of engineers and their potential to make a difference.
“But not just any engineers. Penn State engineers.”
It’s nearly impossible to mention all the notable nooks and crannies inside ECoRE, which is 38% bigger than PSU’s Business Building. But the university outlined a number of features — including spaces for group study, an efficient HVAC system and even a “floating” 80-person classroom on the third floor with no supports beneath it. The room is designed that way, with a conferred wood ceiling beneath to deaden sound, to create an open space on the second floor.
The Engineering Student Services Office will also move to the first floor later this fall, and the second-floor engineering library — which is now easier to find — includes a staff to help students unearth any relevant research paper or periodical ever created.
“I guarantee you Penn State students will use this space and enjoy it for years to come,” Bendapudi added.
The construction of the building, which broke ground in May 2021, is part of a $1 billion College of Engineering revitalization effort that extends through 2028. ECoRE partially replaces the Engineering Units and Hammond Building, a universally panned structure that a trustee once referred to as “stillborn.” (Hammond will be demolished in winter 2028; the Engineering Units this coming January.)
ECoRE complements the $88 million Engineering Design and Innovation Building (EDIB), which opened in February 2023. And it’s only expected to help an engineering program that’s currently ranked No. 31 nationally in U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 Best Engineering Schools.
The College of Engineering is the largest college at Penn State, with more than 10,000 students at University Park. According to the university, the college last year accounted for 26% of all academic college research expenditures — which added up to nearly $219 million.
This story was originally published September 11, 2024 5:00 AM.
