In Fall 2019, engineering students were supposed to start working in the Herbert Wertheim Laboratory of Engineering Excellence, located between the Reitz Union and Weimer Hall.
But construction wasn’t done. UF spokesperson Steve Orlando said last April that construction would be done in Spring 2020. Yet, two months into the Spring semester, construction on the building isn’t done yet — and won’t be done until March or April, said Helen Goh, the College of Engineering spokesperson.
Josh Levi, a 22-year-old UF biomedical engineering graduate student, said he hoped he’d be able to utilize the new building.
“When I was an undergrad, I thought I would see the completion of the new lab,” he said. “As a grad student, I thought for sure that I could utilize it, but now we’ll see.”
Last Spring, Orlando said the building was, at that time, $20 million over budget, costing about $72.2 million in total. The project was originally projected to cost $53 million.
The funding will come from several sources, including $28.4 million from the Public Education Capital Overlay, $23.3 million from Herbert Wertheim, $13 million from the College of Engineering and $3.6 million from UF.
Levi said he wonders how the engineering building could be late and over budget.
“These are people who shouldn’t be making mistakes,” he said. “I don’t know how that is possible.”
Goh declined to answer any further questions about the progress of the project and said to reach out to UF Planning, Design and Construction or to Orlando.
Orlando initially said he would be able to provide information about the progress; however, when asked to provide specific details, he declined to comment.
Because of that, The Alligator wasn’t able to immediately obtain the cost of the project since Orlando’s statement in April 2019.
The Alligator has public record requested information relating to the progress of the building.
On the UF Laboratory for Engineering Excellence’s website, there is supposed to be a week-by-week progress video, although the last video update was posted on Aug. 7, 2019.
In Goh’s statement, she said the building will provide many resources to UF’s engineering students.
“It will house Computer Engineering, Florida Engineering Experiment Station (FLEX), Engineering Innovation Institute (EII), Engineering Leadership Institute (ELI),” Goh wrote in an email. “It’ll also house freshman design labs and senior capstone design courses for all departments and Faculty and student collaborator spaces.”
According to the website, the building will be 84,000 square feet and will have a new biotech lab to help students come up with new solutions to overcome cancer and other diseases. The groundbreaking for the building began in 2016.
It also said that once the building is complete, the college can expect to see an increased number of start-ups and 300 more engineering degrees awarded annually.
For Levi and other engineering students, he said he wonders whether the new building is worth it.
“I still want to see the lab get completed,” he said. “But I wonder if it was worth it given the cost and how long it has taken to come to fruition.”
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that UF Planning, Design and Construction coordinates construction on campus. The Alligator originally reported differently.
Contact Noah Ram at nram@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @noah_ram1.
The construction of the Herbert Wertheim Laboratory for Engineering Excellence is projected to cost more than $70 million, which is $20 million more than its projected cost. The building is located between the Reitz Union and Weimer Hall, and it will house study rooms and labs.
Noah is a third year journalism-sports and media student from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He has been with The Alligator since Spring 2019 and has covered men’s and women’s tennis, gymnastics and volleyball. When he isn’t on his beat, Noah is usually sadden over his beloved South Florida sports teams, such as the Heat and Dolphins.
