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On Campus Blog
Alex Friedrich

GORE-TEX founder gives $10 million to UMN expansion

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Just got this announcement from the U, which I've edited for length:

U alumnus and inventor of GORE-TEX gives $10 million for expansion of Amundson Hall

Robert and Jane Gore have donated $10 million for the expansion of Amundson Hall, the home of the University’s highly ranked Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science in the College of Science and Engineering. This donation builds upon a previous gift of $5 million received last December from Dow Chemical Company for the project.

Robert Gore received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1963. He is the inventor of the revolutionary fabric, called GORE-TEX®. He is the former president and CEO of W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., a company started by his father.

Gore and Dow Chemical Company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer William Banholzer will attend an invitation-only ceremonial groundbreaking 2-4 p.m., Friday, Nov. 2, on the northeast side of Amundson Hall, 421 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis. The event program begins at 2:30 p.m.

About the Amundson Hall expansion:

Construction will begin in early 2013 on a 40,000-square-foot expansion of Amundson Hall. The addition, named the Gore Annex, will accommodate expansion of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science in response to increasing demand from highly qualified students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

The Gore Annex will include two floors below ground and four floors above ground. It has been carefully designed as a separate building with connections to the existing building on each floor to maximize space dedicated to research laboratories. The space includes 60 new hoods and offices for faculty, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students.

Gore Annex will also serve the growing undergraduate class, specifically with a new 3,000-square-foot materials lab outfitted with state-of-the-art materials testing equipment and new offices dedicated to accommodating meetings between small groups of students and teaching assistants.

The total cost of the project is $27.6 million, which includes the building expansion and upgrades to the current building. The project is funded by $15 million in donations, $5.6 million from the College of Science and Engineering for building projects, and $7 million in University Higher Education Asset Preservation and Restoration (HEAPR) funds from the state for upgrades to the current Amundson Hall building, including new windows overlooking the new light-rail station and other infrastructure improvements.

The University of Minnesota has been working with its architectural partners, Perkins+Will, and has selected Kraus-Anderson Construction Company as the general contractor for the future Gore Annex. The building, which features a striking extension cantilevered out over the mall facing the light rail line, is expected to be completed in mid-2014.