Waterloo U approves $88-million E7 engineering building build

WATERLOO, ONT. — Construction of the $88-million Engineering 7 (E7) building at the University of Waterloo was recently approved by its board of governors.

The university’s Building and Properties Committee proposed the 230,000-square-foot, seven-storey building to house Waterloo Engineering. E7 will accommodate growth from the recently launched biomedical engineering program and expansion of the Faculty of Engineering’s mechatronics engineering program.

It will also accommodate the multidisciplinary Engineering Ideas Clinicaao, where undergraduate students starting from first year, integrate classroom theory with hands-on learning as they design, build, test and refine ideas. Also, the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre will relocate to the new facility.

The building will also feature research spaces, a 3D printing laboratory, indoor flight arena for testing autonomous and robotic vehicles, an atrium and elevated pedestrian bridges that will link E7 to Engineering 5 and 6.

Construction is set to kick off next fall.