Building for the future

By Bennett Hall. A wave of new construction is changing the face of Oregon State University
Half a block from the student union in the heart of the Oregon State University campus, the new home of the College of Business is steadily taking shape.
With a massive red crane looming over the construction site, contractors have been working for weeks on the four-story, 100,000-square-foot Austin Hall. By the fall of 2014, what’s now a hulking concrete-and-steel skeleton will be a sleek, modern educational facility, with 10 classrooms, a 250-seat auditorium, dozens of offices and a cafe. It’s a major upgrade for the college, which long ago outgrew its home base in aging, 52,000-square-foot Bexell Hall and currently teaches classes in a hodgepodge of locations scattered across the campus. More...