N.C. A&T celebrates a milestone for its new engineering building

By John Newsom john.newsom@greensboro.com
John Newsom

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Nov 5, 2019
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N.C. A&T Chancellor Harold Martin (center) and others use blue markers to sign a gold-colored steel beam to represent the school colors during Tuesday’s topping-out ceremony for A&T’s new Engineering Research and Innovation Complex in Greensboro.

Khadejeh Nikouyeh/News & Record

GREENSBORO — N.C. A&T held a short “topping out” ceremony Tuesday to mark a major milestone in the construction of its newest campus building.

The ceremony signaled the completion of the steel frame of A&T’s Engineering Research and Innovation Complex. The four-story building is going up on campus on the site of the former Hayes-Taylor Memorial YMCA at East Market and South Dudley streets.

“We’re excited about this facility,” A&T Chancellor Harold Martin said. “It means enhanced opportunities for this university.”

The $90 million building will have engineering research labs, a student makerspace, faculty offices and other spaces for A&T’s College of Engineering. Martin and other university officials envision the new building helping A&T attract students and professors to Greensboro and spurring research and innovation that will boost the regional economy.

The building is about 40% complete and is scheduled to open in fall 2021. Proceeds from the Connect NC bond, approved by North Carolina voters in 2016, are paying the construction costs.

At Tuesday’s ceremony, attendees — A&T trustees and employees, elected officials, students from a freshman engineering class and others — used blue markers to sign a steel beam painted yellow. (Blue and gold are A&T’s school colors.)

People cheered as a crane hoisted the beam into the air and craned their necks to see construction workers fasten the beam to the side of the building that overlooks neighboring Coltrane Hall.