Texas A&M will say farewell to the Zachry Engineering Center at a groundbreaking ceremony Friday and at the “Goodbye Zachry” tailgate Saturday.
The building is slotted for renovation beginning in December and the tailgate will celebrate the future of the building as the Engineering Education Complex.
Zachry will nearly double in size during the course of renovations. While Zachry’s transition into the EIC won’t be complete until spring of 2017, Tell Butler, director of engineering facilities, said the building’s move-out has already begun.
“The plan has already started,” Butler said. “People have already started moving to different areas of the campus and to some of the research facilities that are around the perimeter of the main campus.”
Barbara Mendoza, assistant director of communications with the engineering college, said the tailgate is a celebration looking at the future and encouraged all past, present and future students to attend.
“It is a really neat time that we can all come together,” Mendoza said. “It’s really a celebration of this building and where we are going in the future.”
The groundbreaking ceremony will be at 3 p.m. Friday. Mendoza said several prominent campus individuals will be in attendance, including the Board of Regents and donors to Zachry. Student Body President Kyle Kelly and astronaut Michael Fossum will speak at the ceremony.
Pam Green, director of engineering communications, said Zachry will look extremely different by the end of the renovation.
“If you come to the groundbreaking you can actually see a rendering of the building,” Green said. “We will have that on display with all the details. It is going to be an amazing facility. It is going to undergo a dramatic transformation to become the Engineering Education Complex and it will be the largest academic building on A&M campus. It’s basically one of the key components to transforming engineering education at A&M.”
Green said there will be many attractions at the tailgate. Free food such as hot dogs and drinks will be available, a time capsule will be made with input from those in attendance and the engineering department will host giveaways throughout the event. Green also said students will have the chance to take a small piece of the building home with them.
Green said the time capsule will be a neat addition because the building holds countless memories for faculty and students.
“This building has been around since the 70s and lots of students have gone through it,” Green said. “It’s really like the heart of engineering, everybody who has graduated in engineering has had a class in this building. When we started telling people about this, a lot of people had memories, fun facts and experiences they had in the building. We’re putting together a time capsule where people can put their favorite memory or memento in there.”
The tailgate will run from 3:30pm. to kickoff Saturday on the north lawn of Zachry.