New Learning & Teaching Center Coming to UMD’s College Park Campus

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Continuing a relationship that has lasted seven decades, the University of Maryland awarded Clark Construction Group a $40 million contract to build the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center. The new, 95,800 square-foot facility will be located on the university's College Park campus.

To prepare for the new academic building, Clark and its team first will demolish the university's Shriver Laboratory and part of Holzapfel Hall. The team will then renovate 27,400 square feet of Holzapfel Hall and construct a 63,400 square-foot addition. The scope of work also includes constructing a 5,000 square-foot central utility building as well as performing site and utility improvements.

The Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center will accommodate 2,000 students in multiple classrooms ranging in size from 80 to 320 seats. All spaces will be equipped with the latest classroom technologies managed from a centralized technology service unit. This is the first new building on campus dedicated solely to classroom space in 50 years. The university estimates that 10,000 students will take advantage of the facility every day.

The project will be designed to earn LEED® Silver certification.

Construction will begin in 2014 and completion is expected in February 2016.Clark has partnered with the University of Maryland since the 1940s. The company has constructed some of the College Park campus' most notable buildings including the Chapel, McKeldin and Hornbake Libraries, and the recently-completed Oakland Hall.

Ayers Saint Gross of Baltimore, Md., is the project architect.