After five months of designing and bidding, construction has officially begun on the new Turbomachinery Laboratory Symposium Office.
The new office will be adjacent to the Turbomachinery Laboratory on George Bush Dr. West. It will be one story and approximately 6,050 square feet. The office will contain 13 new faculty and staff offices, six research associate workstations, a 50-person conference and meeting room, new restrooms, mechanical and electrical rooms, and an updated HVAC chiller to serve both the Laboratory and its new addition.
Presently, the Turbo Lab and Symposia staff are located in an office space in the Mechanical Engineering Office Building (MEOB) on the main A&M campus. Moving the Turbo Lab and Symposia staff closer to the rest of the Turbo Lab personnel and research-related infrastructure will greatly increase the efficiency of the research center by grouping the research, education, and work force development aspects of the Turbo Lab into a single, physical location.
The conference and meeting room will be shared with personnel from the nearby Wind Tunnel Complex and Land, Air and Space Robotics (LASR) buildings to make up for the lack of large meeting space in those areas.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to consolidate the Turbo Lab staff, faculty, and students in a single location,” said Dr. Eric Petersen, Turbo Lab Director. “Our mission is to make a vital impact on turbomachinery and related industries through research, education, and workforce development. Combining all three aspects of the center’s daily activities within a permanent, centralized space will allow us to better support this mission, and the new meeting and conference room will give us a local venue for hosting guest speakers, teaching courses, and holding thesis defenses.”
The new Turbo Lab Symposium Office will take approximately 12 months to complete, with a tentative move-in date of February, 2021.