Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

FAU Breaks Ground on Holocaust and Jewish Studies Building

  • By Matt Jones
  • 11/09/23

Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla., recently broke ground on a new facility for the College of Arts and Letters, according to local news. Construction on the Kurt and Marilyn Wallach Holocaust and Jewish Studies Building will begin in early 2024 and is scheduled for completion in February 2025. The building was included as a university priority in the 2021 Boca Raton Campus Master Plan.

The university partnered with Synalovski Romanik Saye, LLC, for the building’s design and Gilbane Building Company for construction. The building will stand two stories and cover about 23,557 square feet. The building will have a capacity of about 380 stations, including academic and administrative areas. It will feature basic academic amenities like a 150-seat lecture hall, classrooms, conference room, computer lab, recording studio, and faculty offices, according to Michael Horswell, Dean of the College of Arts and Letters.

 It will also feature “a Holocaust and human rights professional development training room, a traveling exhibition room, a student multimedia studio and a student study room. The lobby will also have a digital Wall of Recognition and Remembrance meant to ‘acknowledge the support of benefactors and to educate against hate, antisemitism and indifference,’ said Horswell,” according to FAU student publication University Press.

The building will play home to classes in subjects like human rights, justice, peace, Holocaust education, women’s studies, and more. The university website reports that it will also serve as a hub for human rights education and leadership training.

“Liberal arts education helps you to answer difficult questions,” said Alan Berger, Raddock Family eminent Scholar Chair of Holocaust Studies and Judaic Studies professor. “Jewish studies gives us more insight into the human. [The goal is for] the world of the future to be better than the world of the past.”

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • El Paso District Breaks Ground on New Elementary School

    The Canutillo Independent School District in El Paso, Texas, recently announced that construction has begun on a 119,000-square-foot elementary school, according to a news release. The district partnered with Pfluger Architects, Carl Daniel Architects, and LDCM Solutions on the new Davenport Elementary School, which has an expected completion date of 2027.

  • University of Arizona Approves New Residence Hall

    The Arizona Board of Regents recently approved plans for a new residence hall at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz., according to a news release. The new facility is scheduled to open in fall 2028 and have the capacity for more than 1,200 students, enforcing a new university expectation that all first-year students live on campus.

  • Full Sail University Announces First Student Housing Facility

    Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., recently announced that development has begun on its first student housing community, according to a news release. The university is partnering with Nvision Development for construction and long-term management of the facility, which will stand five stories and have the capacity for more than 570 beds.

  • Construction Begins on New University Research Vessel

    Boat-building company All American Marine recently announced that it has begun construction on a new catamaran research vessel for the University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) in Port Aransas, Texas, according to a news release.