UAB breaks ground on new arts and sciences building

The University of Alabama at Birmingham broke ground on a new 160,000-square-foot Arts and Sciences Building, which is slated to open for the fall 2019 semester. GMC designed the new $39.5 million academic facility, located on the corner of 10th Avenue South and 14th Street South.

The College of Arts and Sciences serves more than 50 percent of UAB’s student population through 29 majors and 19 departments, currently occupying space in 14 buildings across campus. The new building will replace the UAB Humanities Building, consolidating the College’s programs and providing more adequate space for the growing student population.

“As a result of the rapid growth of our undergraduate and graduate programs, and the limitations of the Humanities Building, we proposed the construction of a new Arts and Sciences Building to better serve the students of UAB,” said Robert Palazzo, Ph.D., dean of the UAB College of Arts and Sciences. “This new building will provide our campus community with a state-of-the-art facility in which they can work and learn. It will complete the quadrant of high-end buildings around the Green, allow for cohesiveness and convenience, and promote a safe and efficient campus for our students, faculty and staff.”

The new five-story building will anchor the southwest corner of UAB’s campus green and will include classrooms, teaching labs, a 300-seat auditorium, faculty offices and indoor and outdoor collaborative spaces. It will be home to the departments of anthropology, computer and information sciences, English, foreign languages and literatures, mathematics, philosophy, and social work.

M.J. Harris Construction Services is the general contractor for the project.

For more information about the new arts and sciences building, including construction updates, visit http://www.uab.edu/cas/building/.