UConn’s board of trustees on Tuesday approved the move of the university’s West Hartford campus to downtown Hartford and unveiled the first rendering of the new facility, which will be housed at the former Hartford Times building.
Construction of the $115 million building will start next year and could be ready for classes as early as fall 2017, Uconn said. It would be able to accommodate approximately 2,300 students and 250 faculty members.
Presiding at a lawn signing ceremony across from the Hartford Times, UConn President Susan B. Herbst said UConn’s Hartford campus is returning to its original base from 1939 to 1970.
The downtown campus will be called UConn Hartford.
“A century from now, UConn will still be here in a thriving campus in a thriving city,” Herbst said.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who led a phalynx of city, state and civic officials in attendance, said, “It was wrong that UConn didn’t have a major campus in downtown Hartford. This is an important day.”
UConn previously announced that it had selected the former Hartford Times building on Prospect Street as the location for its downtown campus. Front Street developer HB Nitkin has development rights to the site and would be constructing the campus.
UConn will redevelop the Times property into a 140,000-square-foot campus, as well as 20,000-square-feet of retail space, the school said. There will be an exterior courtyard open to the public, and retail stores on three sides of the building, UConn said.
UConn officials say they are also in talks with the Hartford Public Library, Wadsworth Atheneum, Connecticut Science Center and Connecticut Convention Center to hold some classes and share other facilities at those nearby venues.
UConn’s nearby Graduate Business Learning Center will also be consolidated with the other programs at the new campus, including the Department of Public Policy and School of Social Work. UConn will also add a master’s degree program in engineering, along with expanded public policy, urban studies, and education programs, the school said.
Staff Writer Gregory Seay contributed to this report.
