NLC Hosts Beam Signing & Topping Out Ceremony
July 21, 2021
College Places Final Beam on New STEM Building
Northeast Lakeview College (NLC), the newest of the five colleges within the Alamo Colleges District system, hosted a Beam Signing and Topping Out Ceremony on July 21. Employees, community members, and special guests of the College had the opportunity to leave their signature on a beam that will be used on the new Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) building. Followed by a Topping Out Ceremony, one of the last and highest beams was placed during this important construction tradition.
The 86,390 sq. ft facility will be the college’s 10th building and be home to classrooms and labs for physics, chemistry, etc. study spaces, academic support, and a 3rd-floor multipurpose room with the ability to host large events. The multipurpose room is sized to hold 250 occupants and can be divided into three separate rooms. When fully open the room has expansive views south to the lake. Additionally, south-facing balconies extend the flexibility of the space. The facility will also provide space so that NLC can expand its career and technical programs. Construction on the building is expected to be completed in August 2022 and begin offering classes in Fall 2022.
“This facility will provide additional access to education for students pursuing high-demand, high-wage fields, says Dr. Veronica Garcia, NLC president. Our science courses fill quickly, she added. This new building will allow us to expand course offerings to meet the growing needs of our community.”
“The board is pleased that the 2017 bond issue has allowed us to provide state-of-the-art facilities such as this new STEM building to provide our students with top-quality education,” said Alamo Colleges Board Chair Dr. Gene Sprague. “Facilities such as this are part of what makes us the best community college district in the nation,” he added.
“This new facility will greatly enhance the college’s ability to provide their growing number of students with the skills necessary to pursue careers that will provide economic and social mobility. This will benefit not only our students and their families, but also ‘empower our community for economic prosperity,” said Alamo Colleges Chancellor Dr. Mike Flores.
The architect on the project is Ford, Powell, & Carson and the CMAR is Turner Construction.
The $36M facility is being constructed as part of the Alamo Colleges District bond that was passed in May 2017. Building renderings and a construction timeline are available online here