MARIETTA, GA. – Kennesaw State University (KSU) faculty and staff joined Carroll Daniel Construction and community leaders last week for a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of what will soon be KSU’s new Interdisciplinary STEM (ISTEM) Building on their Marietta Campus.
The groundbreaking ceremony is a significant milestone marking the commencement of the project and bringing together KSU and University System of Georgia leaders, the project team, and community partners. The event featured several esteemed guest speakers, including Kennesaw State President Kathy Schwaig, University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue and KSU mechanical engineering student Nick Farinacci, a President’s Parliament Student Ambassador.
President Schwaig remarked, “As an institution that’s working to build our research infrastructure, this building is going to be a key component to our research mission. We solve problems not within disciplines, but across disciplines and so we will see advancements happen out of these laboratories that impact all the disciplines that we have on this campus and on our Kennesaw Campus such as business, the arts, the humanities, health, science and education.”
Kennesaw State University selected Carroll Daniel Construction to build the new two-story, 68,000 SF STEM building. The facility will house both wet and dry laboratory research spaces, providing maximum flexibility and adaptability for the school’s many, diverse projects. The research center will also have instructional labs, flexible classroom space, and collaboration spaces to foster interaction between faculty, researchers, and students. Construction of the facility will support innovative STEM-based research and educational activities geared toward building the future workforce.
The ISTEM Building is intended to bring together educators and researchers from various disciplines to lead university-wide research themes and programs, including Biomedical and Health Services, Safe and Sustainable Communities, Human Development and Well-Being and Computing and Technology. The research center is slated to open by the fall semester of 2025 to accommodate a growing student body at the Marietta campus.
