Apr 27, 2023

PARIC Constructs Missouri S&T’s Vision for Innovation in the Midwest

Missouri Science and Technology needed a partner to achieve its vision of transforming the university into the Midwest hub for research, innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. PARIC is that partner. 

In 2020, the Missouri S&T Chancellor set a strategic vision of growing the school’s enrollment by 50% and achieving Carnegie R1 status. Missouri S&T was setting its aim to rival the national leaders in technical education—to be discussed in the same breath as Purdue and Georgia Tech. To achieve this vision for the future, Chancellor Dr. Mohammad Dehghani knew they would need to build a physical campus worthy of this goal. 

“The definition of an excellent university includes excellent students and excellent faculty, and we need to have a fitting campus for the types of students and faculty we want to continue to attract,” said Chancellor Dehghani.

PARIC Builds Answers

The university faced a unique challenge. There was no “front door” to the campus. In order to raise the national profile of the university, they needed a plan that included a physical building that would make a statement to the nation that “Missouri S&T is here to compete with the most talented engineers in the world.” This master plan—The Manufacture Missouri Ecosystem—will be anchored by one of the region’s most daring and inspired buildings—the Missouri Protoplex.

“The Protoplex is the centerpiece or crown jewel of the innovation campus,” said PARIC Client Engagement Manager Kevin Sullivan.

PARIC is literally constructing Missouri S&T’s vision for the future—a 116,000-sq-ft laboratory building designed for collaborative work, which requires flexibility to move back and forth between the suites of traditional lab, office and conference spaces and large, secure, well-appointed high-bay manufacturing lab spaces.

“The high bay nature of the build and the equipment that’s going to go inside is really a first for our state,” Sullivan said. “I’m excited about the role PARIC is playing in the future of Missouri. Attracting jobs and people from outside the state to Missouri S&T, but also providing a great foundation of excellence for the students.”