SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The University of Rhode Island officially opened its $125 million engineering center on Monday morning in a ceremony attended by more than 500 people.
The Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering is a 190,000-square-foot, six-story building that state leaders touted Monday as a state-of-the-art facility that will allow URI to become a leader in engineering education.
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The construction project, which also included the $25 million expansion of Bliss Hall, the longtime headquarters of the College of Engineering, started in February 2017 and was the largest in URI’s history.
While the glass-walled Fascitelli Center opened for fall classes last month, Bliss is expected to be ready by November. The project was funded by donations as well as bond issues approved by voters statewide.
“Increasingly, our engineering students and faculty are not only working in interdisciplinary teams within the [College of Engineering], but with students and faculty from across the University in oceanography, health, pharmacy, chemistry, computer science and business, as well as companies and corporations around the state, region and the world,” said URI President David M. Dooley. “This new facility will stimulate collaborative, multidisciplinary learning and research. It will lead to discoveries that we cannot even imagine today.”
The center was named after Michael D. Fascitelli, a North Providence native and 1978 graduate of the College of Engineering, and Elizabeth C. Fascitelli, partner of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The couple pledged a $10 million gift in July to benefit the engineering college. Half of the gift will fund lab and research equipment and the remaining $5 million will establish an endowed fund for the dean’s priorities.
“The building is beautiful,” Michael Fascitelli said in a URI news release. “The talent and innovation coming out of URI Engineering are undeniable.”
The center features a metal truss support system that eliminates the need for interior support columns, allowing for uninterrupted open interiors.
URI said the Fascitelli Center and Bliss Hall will bolster the college’s research efforts already under way with The Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Raytheon Co., and General Dynamics. The college is also working with Japanese instrumentation firm, Shimadzu Corp., as well as Hexagon in North Kingstown.
The Fascitelli Center replaces five outdated engineering buildings totaling 98,000 square feet that were razed to make way for the new facility.
On the first floor, there are two 72-seat classrooms and a 60-seat active-learning classroom, URI said. Each of those spaces will contain circular tables and technology that will allow students and faculty members to collaborate. That floor also has core laboratories, including millions of dollars of imaging and other equipment, and space for a future clean room.
“With the opening of the Fascitelli Center and Bliss Hall, students can be educated differently, and researchers can collaborate more easily across disciplines,” said Raymond M. Wright, dean of the College of Engineering. “This building is designed not just to advocate for, but to stimulate interdisciplinary connections and discovery.
URI said the Fascitelli Center and the expanded Bliss Hall, which first opened in 1928, will strengthen the College of Engineering in the areas of clean energy, nanotechnology, robotics, cybersecurity, water for the world, biomedical technology, smart cities, and sensors and instrumentation.
“This new, state-of-the-art facility will help ensure that URI continues to be a global leader in engineering education for decades to come,” said Gov. Gina M. Raimondo. “There’s no greater investment we can make than in our students and their futures, and I’m excited to see the innovative research and collaborative learning that will result from this unique project.”
