UAB opens new engineering school building
UAB officials pose for a ribbon cutting at the new school of engineering building.
After two years of construction, the University of Alabama at Birmingham has a new home for its engineering school. Staff cut the ribbon for the Frances and Miller Gorrie Hall Tuesday morning.
“This is a once in a 40-year event for us,” UAB School of Engineering Dean Jeffrey Holmes said, pointing out that his school’s previous building opened in 1983. “Actually, that’s 42 years, if you want to be an engineer about it.”
The new building comes with advanced labs, research suites and peer tutoring labs. Some of the walls are lined with 3D printers. He said high schoolers attending a summer camp will use those 3D printers for creating and flying drones. College students will begin using the building this fall.
“This is a physical manifestation of the engineering school that we aspire to be,” Holmes said.
The 110,000 square foot building, named in honor of Miller Gorrie, the Birmingham-native behind the construction firm Brasfield & Gorrie, and his wife Frances, cost $77 million. Holmes said it will boost the Birmingham economy. School partners will guarantee internships to every engineering student.
“We need more engineers in this country,” Holmes said. “I think this is critical work.”
Brassfield & Gorrie broke ground on the facility in 2023 and Miller Gorrie attended the ribbon cutting ceremony.
“I’ve always tried to help UAB because my heart is in Birmingham,” Gorrie said. “And anything that helps Birmingham, I want to support.”
UAB holds WBHM’s broadcast license, but our news and business departments operate independently.
Alabama Public Television meeting draws protesters in Birmingham over discussion of disaffiliating from PBS
Some members of the Alabama Educational Television Commission, which oversees APT, said disaffiliation is needed because the network has to cut costs after the Trump administration eliminated all funding for public media this summer.
Gov. Kay Ivey urges delay on PBS decision by public TV board
The Republican governor sent a letter to the Alabama Educational Television Commission ahead of a Nov. 18 meeting in which commissioners were expected to discuss disaffiliation.
A proposed Bessemer data center faces new hurdles: a ‘road to nowhere’ and the Birmingham darter
With the City Council in Bessemer scheduled to vote Tuesday on a “hyperscale” data center, challenges from an environmental group and the Alabama Department of Transportation present potential obstacles for the wildly unpopular project.
Birmingham Museum of Art’s silver exhibit tells a dazzling global story
Silver and Ceremony is made up of more than 150 suites of silver, sourced from India, and some of their designs.
Mentally ill people are stuck in jail because they can’t get treatment. Here’s what’s to know
Hundreds of people across Alabama await a spot in the state’s increasingly limited facilities, despite a consent decree requiring the state to address delays in providing care for people who are charged with crimes but deemed too mentally ill to stand trial. But seven years since the federal agreement, the problem has only worsened.
Ivey appoints Will Parker to Alabama Supreme Court
Parker fills the court seat vacated by Bill Lewis who was tapped by President Donald Trump for a federal judgeship. The U.S. Senate last month confirmed Lewis as a U.S. district judge.
