The new bridge between Hamilton Smith and Dimond Library
Matching infrastructure to aspirations: One of the five priorities of CELEBRATE 150: The Campaign for UNH is creating and renewing physical spaces to reflect the talent and ambitions of our students and faculty. New funds for capital projects allow the university to steward the campuses, buildings and classrooms made possible by previous generations and provide students and faculty with high-quality facilities for teaching, research and other vital aspects of the university experience.
During Homecoming and Family Weekend, the UNH community celebrated the grand openings of two academic buildings on the Durham campus. Hamilton Smith Hall reopened following a $37 million renovation and expansion. The building’s integrated technology and abundant communal spaces facilitate hands-on and collaborative learning, and the layout encourages chance encounters between students and faculty members. A new bridge connecting Ham Smith to Thompson Hall, Dimond Library and Murkland Hall provides new ways for students to navigate the campus.
As part of the renovation, a pair of WPA-era murals, “Agriculture” and “Industry,” have been conserved and restored, thanks in part to a gift from Peter T. Paul ’67. Paul’s godfather, George Lloyd, was one of the original artists to work on these rare examples of historic public art at UNH.
The new acoustic lab space in the Chase expansion
UNH also opened a new wing at the Jere A. Chase Ocean Engineering Laboratory, thanks to a $3 million gift from an anonymous alumnus. The donor wanted “to provide much-needed space and afford many more students the opportunity to work with the outstanding engineering faculty that UNH has assembled” in its School of Marine Sciences and Ocean Engineering, which is preparing the next generation of leaders in coastal, marine and other ocean science fields. UNH’s undergraduate program in ocean engineering is one of very few in the nation and has strong ties to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and private partners.
Visitors to the new wing toured research labs, the machine shop, a computer cluster room, the 90-seat lecture hall, a seminar classroom and a large, covered outdoor workspace. These additions join an already impressive list of facilities at Chase Lab that include a wave/tow tank with a hydraulic wave generator, an engineering tank and a high-speed cavitation tunnel used in hydrodynamics.
The restored mural “Industry” in Ham Smith
Originally published in UNH Magazine Winter 2018 Issue
