ASU Opens New Facilities at Polytechnic, Welcomes New Leadership

Arizona State University will host a building opening and leadership welcome where legislators, community leaders, employees and guests will help celebrate the transformation of the landscape at the Polytechnic campus, with the opening of the new academic complex.

In addition, two new deans, Keith Hjelmstad, university vice president and dean of the College of Technology and Innovation, and Craig Thatcher, dean of the School of Applied Arts and Sciences — will be welcomed. 

The complex includes Peralta, Picacho, Santan and Santa Catalina halls and the Applied Arts Pavilion. Aravaipa Auditorium is the only existing structure from the campus’s military days that was incorporated into the new buildings. It will provide seating for more than 500 people.

Together, these edifices are the homes for the deans offices, new classroom and instructional lab space, faculty offices, a lecture hall, a dance studio and a black box theater with an outdoor amphitheater adjacent to it.

When: Thursday, September 11, 8 a.m. Reception (light breakfast will be served). 8:30 a.m. Program begins. Tours follow the program.

Where: ASU Polytechnic campus, Parking Lot 30 (adjacent to the Technology Center), Williams Field & Power Roads. Mesa, Arizona.

For map, visit: http://www.poly.asu.edu/openingwelcome/.

Enrollment has grown between 25 to 35 percent each fall at the Polytechnic campus. By offering more classes and sections, we are able to maintain ideal classroom environments for our teaching. The 245,000 square feet of academic space nearly doubles the classroom and lab space, allowing us to offer more sections and lower-division classes.

None of this could be possible without the state legislature appropriating money to fund the debt service on $103 million in 2006, and the help of the architect of record RSP Architects, the design architect Lake/Flato and construction manager/general contractor DPR Construction, Inc.