Last Tuesday, May 6, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new Daniel Felix Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science, which is estimated to be completed in December 2015, according to outgoing Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senator and mechanical engineering major Alicia Everett.

The new building is named in memory of Daniel Felix Ritchie, father of Chancellor Emeritus Daniel Ritchie, and will replace John Greene Hall, which served as one of the engineering and computer sciences buildings from 1958 until winter quarter of this school year. Demolition on John Greene began on Monday, April 14 and is expected to be completed in May, while general construction of the new school will begin on July 1, according to Linda Lautenbach, construction project manager of DU Facilities and Management.

According to a press release from DU, the construction is funded by a combined $40 million donation from Ritchie, Billy Knoebel and the late Bill C. Petersen. Ritchie’s contribution is the largest at $27 million. In addition to the construction efforts, the donation will assist in faculty support, student scholarships and more.

In addition to including a signature copper dome atop the structure, the new school will have a variety of classrooms and lab spaces for use by students and staff, according to Interim Dean Michael Keables.

“The first floor will be devoted to a communal space for students and faculty, and will feature a machine shop, which is the heart of the engineering program,” said Keables. “The second floor will be home to the mechatronics systems group, including robotics and systems teams. On the third floor will be the computing systems groups including humane games, software engineering, cyber security, power and energy systems, computational composite materials and optics and communications.”

Keables further detailed the layout of the building, as the fourth floor will house the bioengineering research departments, and the fifth and final floor will sustain the biomedical research labs and the Knoebel Center for the Study of Aging. The building will consolidate DU’s engineering programs under one roof, whereas now they are taught in five different buildings on campus.

Everett praised the construction of the building and the possibilities future students will be able to explore utilizing the building.

“I cannot express how excited I am that there is the groundbreaking for this building,” said Everett. “I see the Ritchie School as an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for DU to have the facilities that we need to push our engineering school to be the best that DU has had in its history. As a student, I understand the workload that comes with this major. There’s many nights of staying up and staying in, and having a home base for the students is invaluable.”

Ritchie remarked on his plans to donate towards the project beyond his time, but was excited to see the contribution go through and construction on the building begin this year.

“I planned to address the problem of the very inadequate facilities in my will,” said Ritchie. “But as you can tell I’m living a long time. [Ritchie] was the kind of a man who I think we can all be proud of with his integrity, he worked hard and was successful in the middle of the Depression, so I am very proud that we are naming this for my father.”