The Agricultural Sciences Building, a significant part of the re-imagining of agricultural sciences at West Virginia University’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, will have a groundbreaking at 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 12.

Upon completion, the facility will house Davis College administrative units and three of its five academic divisions, Animal and Nutritional Sciences, Plant and Soil Sciences, and Resource Management, along with specialists and staff in WVU Extension Service’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Unit.

The building will be 201,000 square feet with an unfinished space for future completion of 8,000 square feet. The five-story structure will include substantial instructional space for lectures and laboratories, as well as cutting-edge research laboratories and design studios for students in landscape architecture and environmental design.

The project, which is currently out on bid, includes construction of the new Agricultural Sciences Building and demolition of the current building. Construction is expected to be completed by December 2015, with the demolition of the current building projected for early 2016.

The building has been designed by Duncan Kirk, AIA, the technical principal of HOK’s Washington, DC, and Atlanta offices.

The groundbreaking ceremony will include remarks by WVU President James Clements, Davis College Dean Dan Robison, West Virginia State Treasurer John Perdue, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist Doolarie Singh-Knights, and Rachel Manning, an undergraduate student pursuing majors in agricultural and extension education and agribusiness management and rural development.

“This groundbreaking for the Davis College is an exciting day as we commence with a new building, and it is also a day to re-imagine what we do and recommit ourselves to the high mission of WVU and our pursuit of the sciences of agriculture, natural resources and design,” Robison said.

The groundbreaking will take place in the Area 43 parking lot adjacent to the South Agricultural Sciences Building on WVU’s Evansdale Campus. Following the ceremony, a reception will be held in the Evansdale Greenhouse featuring light refreshments using the West Virginia 63 tomato, bred by Emeritus Professor Mannon Gallegly. WVU is celebrating the 50th birthday of the tomato.

The groundbreaking takes place a year after the dedication of the Evansdale Greenhouse. The exterior of the new Agricultural Sciences Building will match that of the Greenhouse, as will the South Agricultural Sciences Building, which is currently being re-skinned. The Davis College facilities are part of WVU’s multi-year, $159.5 million building plan that is remaking the Evansdale campus.

-WVU-

dw/9/10/13

CONTACT: David Welsh, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design
304-293-2394, david.welsh@mail.wvu.edu

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