![\"Garage](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-08-29-03-meet-smith-hall-1.jpg\")
After two years of construction and $48 million, the Smith Hall of Science and Technology is open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vice President for Operations Susan Grimm led the development of Smith Hall, named after alumnus and technology entrepreneur William Smith Jr. and his wife Dieva. Working on the renovation of the former Rockwell Hall of Science, which is now connected to STEM Hall, was an honor, according to Grimm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere will be fun projects (in the future), but taking an old, worn-out building and breathing the life and bringing it back when it\u2019s so historic anyway was really rewarding for everybody on the project. That was the neat thing. There\u2019s so many people on our project that feel ownership over it, and they all are so proud of it,\u201d Grimm said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The upgrade to Smith Hall added classrooms, labs, collaborative spaces and offices to increase science and technology research capabilities for STEM programs like biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and exercise science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the beginning, Landau Building Company, the construction firm on the project, The Smith Group, the architect and Grimm laid out their collective vision for Smith Hall. Grimm believed they worked together well to deliver the project on time and on budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe designed the building the way we want it. And then, when there\u2019s a cost that exceeds that number, then you start value engineering \u2026 You find things that you can live with that are cost savings that brings the number down to that target number, and our goal was to never take the functionality out of it,\u201d Grimm said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During an Aug. 19 open house, the improvements to the exercise science program\u2019s resources particularly interested faculty members. The department, which over the last 10 years has moved from the PLC to Rockwell and back to the PLC during construction, now has six labs and an environmental chamber that can control altitude, temperature and humidity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSmith Hall is a significant upgrade to the Exercise Science Department. In all those previous moves, exercise science was basically confined to one space,\u201d Dr. Philip Prins, chair of the department, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The upgrade was because of \u201cour very good enrollment, and because of the very innovative and high quality and impactful research that we do,\u201d according to Prins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Smith Hall refurbishment is part of the college\u2019s Impact 150 fundraising campaign, which aims to raise $185 million for various capital projects and student financial aid over the next several years to coincide with the college\u2019s 150th anniversary in 2026. However, it was the most expensive and time-consuming among the campaign\u2019s first-phase priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe had to reinforce the third floor to be able to meet code. And the biggest thing was all the extra work that we didn\u2019t know that we were going to have to do. So, we always kind of joke, \u2018Well, the tower is still standing. That\u2019s a good thing.\u2019 So, (it was a) phenomenal project. I don\u2019t think I will ever have a project like this one again,\u201d Grimm said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo have the partnerships that we had with our architects and engineers and building company and all of our sub-contractors, (it\u2019s) kind of unheard of to have that much continuity within that many different personalities and strengths,\u201d she expressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Science building gets upgraded<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[15,14,91],"class_list":["post-895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","tag-issue-2025-08-29","tag-front-page","tag-matthew-purucker"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-08-29-03-meet-smith-hall-1.jpg",831,1280,false],"thumbnail":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-08-29-03-meet-smith-hall-1.jpg",97,150,false],"medium":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-08-29-03-meet-smith-hall-1.jpg",195,300,false],"medium_large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-08-29-03-meet-smith-hall-1.jpg",768,1183,false],"large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-08-29-03-meet-smith-hall-1.jpg",665,1024,false],"1536x1536":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-08-29-03-meet-smith-hall-1.jpg",831,1280,false],"2048x2048":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-08-29-03-meet-smith-hall-1.jpg",831,1280,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Science building gets upgraded","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2054,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions\/2054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}