HPM, a construction company, recently celebrated the completion of the $59 million Raymond B. Jones Engineering Building at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
The 70,000-square-foot building’s top-out meant construction is now complete. Work on the facility started in October 2024, with construction having begun in April 2023. It is expected to be finished by June 2026, in time for the autumn semester of 2026.
As the owner’s representative and program manager, HPM is now working on the project, which will give UAH’s engineering school access to state-of-the-art facilities for instruction and research.
Tony Smith, senior project manager at HPM, stated, “To keep this project on track to open for the next school year, our team is leveraging decades of experience in higher education initiatives.” We appreciate our trade partners’ dependability and the solid partnership we have built with UAH, which we hope to expand. Experiential learning and exploration are key to the Raymond B. Jones Engineering Building’s design, and we are honored to contribute to realizing the school’s vision with a cutting-edge addition that will help future generations of engineering students.
The structure will include three floors with cutting-edge research labs, adaptable classrooms, and collaborative teaching areas that encourage creativity and hands-on learning. With modern equipment and cutting-edge technology, the building will give students practical, hands-on experience and resources to support the university’s flagship engineering department, which has more than 2,850 students and is the largest college at UAH, according to HPM.
The new structure will improve UAH’s capacity to train students for professions in rapidly expanding technical fields like artificial intelligence, big data, unmanned aerial systems, and hypersonics. The facility is named in honor of Raymond B. Jones, a longtime businessman, community leader, and former chairman of the UAH Foundation, and it replaces a structure that was built decades ago.
HPM will continue to provide program management services through completion, having initially collaborated with UAH in August 2023 during the design and construction phase. The safety of students, teachers, and staff during construction is a top priority for HPM’s team, which is still coordinating with university officials and trade partners. Along with providing students with accessible alternate routes, it also offers logistical advice on how to move goods into and out of the project location and facilitates regular schedule reviews to fulfill interim deadlines.
Witnessing the realization of the Jones Engineering Building’s vision is immensely satisfying. According to Christian Reed, UAH’s chief facilities officer and campus architect, “We are dedicated to pushing the boundaries of engineering through state-of-the-art research, outstanding education, and industry collaboration.” The noticeable advancements in this initiative, which has taken years to complete, demonstrate the university’s dedication to improving workforce development, education, and research.
The first collaboration between HPM and UAH is the Raymond B. Jones Engineering Building. MJ Harris Construction Services, Perkins & Will, Nola | VanPeursem Architects, Building & Earth, which supplied Geotech and CMT Services, and Environmental Services Corporation, which served as the Commissioning Agent, are other project partners.
Other noteworthy projects undertaken by HPM include the renovation of Drake State Community and Technical College’s library and nursing school buildings; the University of Mississippi’s Jim and Thomas Duff Center for Science and Technology; Mississippi State University’s Azalea Hall; Auburn University’s Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center; and the University of Alabama’s redesigned Julia Tutwiler Hall.
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