Cal Poly Humboldt officials held a groundbreaking ceremony today for the campus’ brand new Engineering and Technology Building. 

Three stories high and 76,000 square feet, the mass-timber behemoth will cost $100 million to build. Funds come from the $458 million grant the university got in 2021 to become a polytechnic. It will open in summer of 2026 and is being built by the nationwide Swinerton construction company. 

The building, located where the Campus Events Field once lay, will house classrooms for the engineering and computer science departments, as well as 15 different labs, a wood shop and a machine shop. It’s the first major teaching space construction on campus since 2008. 

“You could be building a part for a robot one day,” said Associate Vice President Michael Fisher, “and a frame for a clay model another day.”

Speakers at the event made it clear that it was a project that had taken thousands of hours of collaboration to come to completion. Provost Jenn Capps said she had done 150-200 presentations a year on the building. 

“This building is symbolic not only of the transformation of Humboldt State University into Cal Poly Humboldt,” interim president Michael Spagna said, “but also of the transformation of the entire region.”

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