Engineering Technology Center, KSU Marietta

Completed in January 2011, this three-story, 123,000 square-foot building on the Kennesaw State University Marietta Campus houses classrooms, laboratories, faculty offices, and a 200-seat auditorium. Designed by Cooper Carry & Associates, the building is certified LEED-NC Gold. A number of student-built objects are on display in the atrium space, including a motorcyle that once belonged to former student Ceasar Gonzales.

The Engineering Technology Center opened in January 2011 on the campus of Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU, now Kennesaw State University). The ribbon cutting for this $30-million facility, originally scheduled for early in the year, was postponed until April 2011 because of a snow storm, known as Snowmaggedon, that hit the Atlanta area on January 9, 2011. The delayed festivities surrounding the ribbon cutting featured remarks by Shan Cooper, vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and general manager of Lockheed's Marietta plant, reinforcing the link between SPSU's engineering program and Lockheed.

At the time of construction, SPSU was the only public university in the state to offer a degree in mechatronics engineering. This program, which integrated mechanical and electrial engineering with computer science and software engineering, was housed in the new Engineerig Technology Center, which also housed all of the engineering and engineering technology programs of SPSU's School of Engineering Technology & Management and Division of Engineering. SPSU offered 13 undergraduate engineering and engineering technology degree programs along with three graduate engineering and engineering technology programs.

The building represented a major expansion of SPSU's facilities with 12 classrooms, faculty offices, an auditorium and 36 laboratories, including computer labs, an energy/HVAC lab, a fluid mechanics lab, a strength-of-materials lab, an electromagnetics lab, a computer-integrated manufacturing lab, an automotive lab, an engineering graphics lab, a biomedical lab, and a machine shop. The atrium space, known as the gallery, has on display several exhibitions and objects. Among the notable objects on display is a motorcycle, which is suspended from the ceiling. The motorcycle, a 1982 Kawasaki KZ750, was donated to the university by Caesar Gonzales, a professional motorcyle racer and Kennesaw State University alumnus. Gonzales's 2006 book, Beating the Odds: An Autobiographical Rags to Racing Story, chronicled his journey from a troubled home on Long Island, NY, to his career as a professional motorcycle racer. Other student-built objects are also on display in the gallery.

The building, which is located on the western side of the campus adjacent to the parking deck, was designed by Cooper Carry & Associates and built by DPR Construction. Anja Matthews, an SPSU graduate, was the project manager for the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission, which oversaw the project.

Ribbon Cutting at Southern Polytechnic State University, Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission. April 26th, 2011. Accessed May 15th, 2023. https://gsfic.georgia.gov/ribbon-cutting-southern-polytechnic-state-university.

Highfield, Travis. Beating the Odds, Kennesaw State Universtiy News. May 1st, 2018. Accessed May 15th, 2023. https://www.kennesaw.edu/news/stories/2018/graduate_mechanical_engineering_tech.php.

Lord, Aeck & Sargent. Campus Historic Preservation Plan for Southern Polytechnic State University. Atlanta, GA. Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, 2013.