Groundbreaking for new Jamrich Hall

Construction is underway at Northern Michigan University on a brand–new academic building.

NMU held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday morning for a new version of Jamrich Hall.  The new hall will cost more than $30 million dollars.

The new building will be a much more up to date version of the old building.  More than forty percent of all NMU classes are held in Jamrich Hall.

“This (new Jamrich Hall) will be state of the art technology,” David Haynes, President of NMU said.  “This will have new kinds of facilities for teaching, using social media, using tech teaching methods.  It’ll have gathering spaces for students.”

The new Jamrich Hall will be more energy efficient than the current building.  It will also have a clock tower to serve as a northern light in the center of campus.

“I think it’ll look spectacular.  If you think about it, at night, it’ll be illuminated,” Dr. Garnet Lewis, a Chairwoman of the NMU Board of Trustees said.  “You’ll be walking from down campus or coming back from up campus, which is what we used to refer it as, and being able to see the clock tower lit, I think it’ll be really pretty.”

Once the new building is complete, the current Jamrich Hall will be demolished and turned into a parking lot.  The new Jamrich Hall is scheduled to open in the fall of 2014.