The first beams were erected on Thursday on the $147-million new Science Building on the MTSU campus. The new building will provide more than 250,000 gross square feet of teaching, faculty and student research laboratories and collaborative learning spaces.

Performing the work are employees for Turner Construction Co., which is headquartered in New York City but with a Nashville office in Brentwood, Tenn. Spring 2015 is the expected completion date for the project.

The project was placed on the Tennessee Board of Regents capital outlay priority list in 1998, and remained MTSU’s and the TBR’s No. 1 priority on the list, in addition to it being the No. 1 Tennessee Higher Education Commission five-year capital projects plan. The existing Wiser-Patten and Davis science buildings were built in 1932 and 1967, respectively, and have only 75,332 net square feet. (MTSU photo by Andy Heidt/MTSU Creative and Visual Services)