ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603250049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE FLEDGLING PROGRAM at Virginia Commonwealth University, which Virginia Tech helped set up, will be three times its original size.
Virginia Commonwealth University's new engineering school will be nearly three times as large and twice as expensive as originally projected, university officials said.
The expansion will require the demolition this summer of a warehouse, now occupied by VCU's crafts programs. The brick building was scheduled to be renovated and expanded to become VCU's Fine Arts Center.
``This whole block will be for the school of engineering,'' university President Eugene P. Trani said.
Ground will be broken this summer for the $40 million project. ``With this school, VCU will play a more important role in the training of Virginia's work force.''
That means relocation of some of VCU's arts programs. Plans disclosed Thursday call for constructing a $15.7 million fine arts building on a site to be determined.
Some arts programs will have to be moved temporarily until the new fine arts building opens in 1999, officials said.
The state gave VCU approval in late 1994 for one $20 million building. The university announced that the engineering complex eventually will include four major structures, the first two of which are to open in the spring of 1998. A fund-raising campaign is under way.
VCU will enroll its first engineering class of 50 to 100 freshmen this fall. The engineering school eventually will enroll about 500 undergraduates.
The school, offering mechanical, chemical, and electrical engineering, is much smaller than the 6,000-student College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. Tech, which offers 12 degrees through 10 programs, has helped set up the Richmond engineering college.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB