The Fred Pirkle Engineering and Technology Center will be a new addition to campus with construction beginning mid-summer 2015, according to SHSU spokesperson Julia May. It will be located next to the Forensics Science building, in place of parking lots P24 and part of P26.
As for the Pirkle Building, it will have three floors. The first floor will be the engineering level, the second floor will be for agricultural programs and the third will be a graduate students and faculty area where students can go to seek assistance.
Talk of the technology building began a few years ago with alumnus Frederick Pirkle, founder of Therm-Omega-Tech, Inc. Pirkle graduated from SHSU with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial arts in 1970 and a Master’s degree in industrial technology in 1974. Pirkle had a general background in engineering and technology and with those interests, wanted to create an environment to help other individuals go into the same field.
SHSU received a pledge agreement in the amount of $25 million from Pirkle for the construction of a technology building. According to TSUS documents, this will cover the entire cost of construction.