Jonsson Engineering Center

Introduction

Residing on the south end of the '86 Field and located between the Darrin Communications Center and the Greene Building, the Jonsson Engineering Center (JEC), is home to the RPI School of Engineering. Finished in 1977, the building is dedicated to J. Erik Jonsson, who graduated from RPI in 1922 and was the co-founder of Texas Instruments. Jonsson made a donation of $2.6 million towards the final cost of $17.8 million.

History

The JEC was part of a massive renovation project that the university was undertaking in order to upgrade various office spaces and replace the aging engineering facilities at the school. When a plan for a new building announced in February of 1974, the local architecture firm Levatich, Miller & Hoffman provided an in depth analysis of the surrounding buildings. Based off of this analysis, RPI was presented with the option to either demolish the existing Troy Building and construct a new building, or to link the Russell Sage Laboratory and the Ricketts Building together. Ultimately the first option was chosen, with the hope that the building would allow activities to move from the older West Hall, Carnegie, and Pittsburgh Buildings to more modernized buildings.

Ground Breaking

The ground breaking took place on April 18, 1975. In a change from traditional ceremonies, it was started with an underground explosion and triggered by a long distance phone call from Mrs. Jonsson, who was in Dallas Texas. During construction, the '86 Field was called the '43 field due to the fact that half of the field was used as a staging area. A formal dedication of the JEC took place on October 7, 1977.

Modern Day

Today the JEC is still home to the Engineering department. The building is 7 stories high and has 2 elevators. Each floor holds different disciplines within engineering. For instance, the 5th floor is for aeronautical engineering and the 4th floor is for civil engineering. The JEC contains a subsonic wind tunnel and several laboratories, including the mechatronics lab and the geotechnical centrifuge research center, home to the nation's third largest academic centrifuge. The building also houses the Engineering hub and the OT Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Lab, which is where various capstone and project based classes take place. Multiple machine labs are located throughout the building, allowing students to learn how to machine and create their own parts for projects. More recently, Wi-Fi connectivity problems have surfaced in various classrooms in JEC.

References

https://archives.rpi.edu/institute-history/building-histories/jonsson-engineering-center

https://poly.rpi.edu/opinion/2020/01/tech-problems-at-a-tech-school/

https://pocketsights.com/tours/place/JErik-Jonsson-Engineering-Center-1068:206