Ground was broken on the Rutgers-New Brunswick downtown project on Sept. 19, 2013. At the time, university officials called it one of the biggest makeovers of the College Avenue campus since the school’s founders offered its first courses at Old Queens in the Colonial days. “We are creating a new heart for the historic campus of this university,’’ university President Robert Barchi said before putting a shovel into the ground. (Photo: a look at the new Academic Building, which extends Voorhees Mall, the green space in the heart of campus, by an additional block).
The first academic building constructed on the RU-New Brunswick campus since 1961, the this is a 200,000 square foot academic facility that, when it opens in August 2016, will feature lecture halls, large and small classrooms, informal learning spaces as well as faculty offices and conference spaces.