Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Southwest Missouri CC Breaks Ground on Advanced Manufacturing Center

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 12/10/20

A community college in southwest Missouri has just broken ground on a new facility to house advanced manufacturing education programs. The $39 million Robert W. Plaster Center for Advanced Manufacturing at Ozarks Technical Community College is planned as a 120,000-square-foot building.

Renderings of the Robert W. Plaster Center for Advanced Manufacturing. Source: Ozarks Technical Community College

Among the technical programs to be housed there are:

  • Industrial systems technology;
  • Manufacturing technology;
  • Precision machining;
  • Drafting and design; and
  • Computer networking.

The center will also provide classes in automation, fabrication, robotics and 3D printing. It will deliver continuing education for individuals and companies through the college's Center for Workforce Development, feature a business incubation center and have dedicated space where local industry can conduct training and do research and development.

Funding was made possible through a combination of sources. In April 2018, area voters passed a five-cent property tax increase to the college's property tax, with a promise from Chancellor Hal Higdon that if the tax vote passed, the college would build a Center for advanced manufacturing.

Renderings of the Robert W. Plaster Center for Advanced Manufacturing. Source: Ozarks Technical Community College

"We are grateful to the people of southwest Missouri who voted to make this facility possible," he said in a press release. "Not only will it help the workers and businesses who currently call the Ozarks home, but we also hope it will attract new, high-tech industry to the region."

The building has been named for the late Robert Plaster, an area businessman. The Robert W. Plaster Foundation has worked with many area colleges and universities to support capital projects.

The school also received a $500,000 donation from Emerson, a global technology and engineering firm based in St. Louis, which employs "dozens" of Ozark Community College graduates. That investment will fund the Emerson Innovation Discovery Lab, which will serve as a starting and ending point for facility tours, with hands-on activities for tour participants, including students.

The state of Missouri also awarded the college a $4.75 million grant through the MoExcels Workforce Initiative. Managed through the Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, MoExcels supports workforce initiatives in the state. That funding paid for much of the equipment and educational apparatus that will be housed in the facility.

Crossland Construction was awarded the $24.2 million bid to build the center. Local firm Dake|Wells along with national partner Perkins&Will are serving as architects for the project. The college plans to have the facility done by fall 2022.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Planning with Clarity: Using AI to Make Better Campus Decisions, Not Just Better Designs

    Higher education leaders are being asked to make increasingly high-stakes decisions about campus facilities amid greater uncertainty than ever before. Social and economic pressures, shifting enrollment, and evolving learning models compete with growing deferred maintenance needs to strain even the most robust infrastructure budgets.

  • Virginia Tech Tops Out New College of Engineering Building

    Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., recently celebrated the topping out of Mitchell Hall, which will soon stand as the largest College of Engineering building on campus, according to a news release. The university partnered with Skanska on the 285,500-square-foot facility, which has an expected completion date of winter 2028.

  • Children walking along bright school corridor with motion blur

    How Next-Gen Design Is Reshaping the Student Experience

    The environments where students learn play a crucial role in shaping their growth in and out of the classroom. By centering design on well-being, flexibility, and purpose, districts can ensure their facilities remain vibrant community assets for many years to come.