Anyone taking the sidewalk from the Union to the west side of campus has probably noticed the fencing that has sprung up around the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Building, located just south of Ladd Hall. Soon this building will be completely demolished.
“It should be torn down in three weeks, and then the next phase will be to create a turnaround or cul-de-sac where that building was for fire trucks and other emergency vehicles,” said Michael Ellingson, the director of Facilities Management. “That whole process should be done around May or June.”
In addition to the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Building, Harris Hall and the Northern Crops Institute Building—both located on the outer edge of campus—will be torn down in June and July, along with the northernmost set of greenhouses. According to Ellingson, these areas will be turned into green spaces as part of the Peltier project.
“There’s some legislative requirement in there that when you add new buildings, you have to tear some of the old ones down,” said Ellingson. Since the buildings being removed are older, it will give faculty and students a chance to work in newer and more up-to-date buildings.
The buildings being constructed as part of the Peltier Complex will be off to the west of campus. According to a release by NDSU when the project was begun in 2021, “The Peltier Complex will bring together NDSU’s food science, meat science and cereal science laboratories along with NCI, a four-state-focused agency committed to promoting, developing and marketing crops.”
The Peltier Complex is funded by the North Dakota Legislature as well as donations from NDSU supporters. It is named after the Peltier family, who contributed a large portion of the money that needed to be donated and collaborated with the Legislature to make the new building possible.
Other changes coming to campus include the renovation of the Center for Engineering and Computational Sciences. The project recently received a 25 million dollar donation from Richard Offerdahl and will feature many new collaborative spaces for engineering and computational science students, as well as a skyway from the Center to Memorial Union, according to the plans posted on the NDSU website.
Smaller-scale renovations coming to NDSU include Burgers at the U in the Memorial Union food court, which is undergoing a full renovation and is slated to reopen in the fall of 2024. Though it was announced a month ago that a Chik-fil-A would be coming to Memorial Union, the announcement page has since been removed from the Dining website.