Take one step inside the Arthur Weisberg Family Applied Engineering Complex, look around for a moment, and you can tell it’s a place designed for engineers.
You can see it in the sleek, clean architecture, and in the flatscreen TVs on the surrounding walls, flashing university information and photos of the striking, $56 million facility.
You can see it in the oversized touch-screen monitor that sits in the center of the lobby, which you can tap for directions through the building or contact information for faculty and administrators, and watch a construction time-lapse video speeding through the structure’s construction process, from its start in 2012 to the finishing touches earlier this year.
What engineer wouldn’t want to see that?
The Aug. 13 ribbon-cutting for this 155,000-squarefoot showpiece, a present and future training ground for a leading-edge workforce, was a vision turned reality for a lot of people. Seeing students pour through the doors would have been a thrill for its namesake, the late Arthur Weisberg, president of the Huntington-based Arthur’s Enterprises. He died in 2012 after the groundbreaking for the complex, for which he and his family made a substantial donation. His wife, Joan Weisberg, was among a dozen members of his family on hand at the opening celebration in August, a dream come true for a man who built an enterprise in electrical supplies from the ground up, right here in Huntington.
“I am so happy,” Joan Weisberg said. “I look forward to what our engineering school will produce: Highly educated students who will graduate and stay here.”
Art Weisberg spoke about his commitment to the project in June 2012.
“Engineering, to me, is the future of America and of West Virginia,” he said. “ … I love Huntington and I know this gift will make a lasting difference.”
There was another whose vision played a powerful role in the massive undertaking, who was unable to see it become reality, the late Marshall President Stephen J. Kopp, who passed away in December 2014. His wife, Jane, was there to celebrate its opening last month with the Weisbergs, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins, and the Marshall community.
Kopp’s foresight and dedication resulted in more than $100 million in new academic facilities going up on the north side of Third Avenue, all in less than a decade, Interim Marshall President Gary White said. The new complex stands between the Arthur Weisberg Family Engineering Laboratories to the west, and the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center to the east.
“It was his life’s work, and we will be forever grateful,” White said.
Something to brag about
When it comes to recruiting new faculty, students and researchers – the brilliant kind who want to stay in front of the curve – things just got a whole lot easier at Marshall University.
Designed by Bastian & Harris and constructed by BBL Carlton, both of Charleston, the new engineering complex offers a testing lab ready to try out the most advanced materials and provide space for designs of bridges, buildings and mining-related structures to be evaluated under real-world conditions. It features a three-foot-thick concrete floor and adjoining wall that allows testing for prototypes that need to be anchored.
The lab’s capabilities are already attracting attention from outside organizations that want to partner with Marshall for research projects.
Classrooms and labs have smart podiums that easily allow professors to display notes, diagrams and information on large screens for the class to see. Throughout the building, there are high-resolution monitors and study group spaces, where students can connect their own devices and collaborate on projects.
And true to its goal of staying in the forefront, the facility also is an example of some of the latest engineering in environmentally sound technology. It has an experimental green roof, installed by more than 90 volunteers, that will reduce stormwater discharge from the complex and give students a chance to study the ecological effects of stormwater.
The four-story complex stretches 480 feet along Third Avenue, and its square footage spans more than three football fields. Though a “wireless” facility, it has 72 miles of telecommunications wiring, 1 million feet of electrical wiring, and LEED Silver recognition for its energy efficiency.
According to Dr. Wael Zatar, dean of Marshall’s College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, the university has more than 700 students in its undergraduate engineering, computer science and safety technology programs, as well as its graduate programs in engineering, computer science and applied science and technology. Marshall aims to double those numbers over the next 10 years. Meanwhile, new degrees are expected to be added, including electrical engineering at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and a bio-engineering undergraduate program.
The new facility does a number of great things, Zatar said. It brings programs together under one roof and it puts Marshall in a better position to land research funding. It also has some breathing room, poised to bring on the technologies of the future.
“The building will allow for growth, the addition of new programs and tremendous opportunities for our students,” he said. “The education and experience they receive in this complex will benefit the community and region by providing top-notch graduates to meet the needs of prospective employers in the region and will capitalize on the growing interest in the fields of engineering and technology.”
Making a comeback
As impressive as the engineering program’s comeback has been over the past decade, it’s a course of study that has been on a roller coaster ride in the past 50 years.
It had been a well-established, credible program for decades – with many of its graduates still out there today, changing the world. Then, engineering disappeared at Marshall for about 30 years. By the 1970s, there were other exciting things going on at the university, such as the start of the medical school. Accreditation standards were high for engineering, and Marshall’s program hadn’t gotten the investment it needed to keep up. Marshall’s last engineering student of that era graduated in 1976.
Getting the program back was a mission for West Virginia Sen. Bob Plymale, who knew its worth in giving Huntington and West Virginia an economic edge in the 21st century.
He was the lead sponsor of legislation in 2004 that would again allow Marshall to offer a baccalaureate degree in engineering. After that legislation passed, a four-year program was built and accreditation followed.
The West Virginia Legislature then passed a bill providing $25 million in funding from higher education bonds. That, combined with the generosity of the Weisbergs, helped bring the new complex into the realm of reality, along with some help from other philanthropists, including Mary H. Hodges, the Baer and Polan families, the BrickStreet Foundation, J.H. Fletcher & Co., Doug and Sue Ellen Hardman, Charles and Victoria Neighborgall and Shelba Pew. Alum Leonard C. “Lance” Atkins, founder of Atkins Engineers in Florida and a 1970 Marshall engineering graduate, made a three-year gift toward the purchase of equipment.
Of the Weisbergs, Plymale said their gift was “unbelievable.”
“Art and Joan Weisberg are as true an example of the Greatest Generation as you’ll ever find,” he said. They demonstrate perfectly how to give to others for the benefit of all.
“When you have that much passion, it bleeds over to everyone,” Plymale said. “This could almost have the same kind of impact that the medical school had on Marshall University.”
Jean Tarbett Hardiman is a Uniontown, Ohio, native who moved to Huntington 17 years ago to work at The Herald-Dispatch. She is a freelance writer, and is married with two young daughters and a grown stepdaughter.
Photos: (From top) The outside of the complex. Ground-breaking for the engineering complex took place in 2012, shortly before Arthur Weisberg’s passing. The Weisberg family (right) sits with President White, his wife Jo Ann (left) and Jane Kopp (center) during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The state state-of-the-art engineering complex was unveiled Aug. 13 and those in attendance had the opportunity to tour the facility.