Weeks Hall of Engineering to be built at Rutgers
3 March 2015USA - Gifts totalling USD 10M to the Rutgers University Foundation will name a gateway engineering building the Richard Weeks Hall of Engineering, honoring 1950 alumnus Richard N. Weeks, chairman of Weeks Marine. Weeks donated USD 6M and another alumnus who has chosen not to be named provided USD 4M as part of a challenge grant.
The new 100,000 square-foot facility will be built on the Busch Campus and will house the School of Engineering's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as well as laboratories for advanced manufacturing and environmentally sustainable resources and systems.
"This is the first time that the School of Engineering will have a building named for an alumnus," said Thomas Farris, the school's dean. "We will tell Mr. Weeks's story in this building, as well as the stories of other alumni who are leaders in their fields. These stories will inspire our students, showing them how they too can do what Mr. Weeks and others have done with their Rutgers engineering degrees."
After graduating with a civil engineering degree in 1950, Weeks joined the family business, which started in 1919 as a stevedoring firm - loading and unloading cargo ships. During his time with the company, it grew into one of the largest marine construction, dredging and tunneling organizations in North America,
Farris notes that the building's name also honors Weeks's father and son, both named Richard. His son, Richard S. Weeks, serves as the company's president.
According to Farris, Weeks has been a regular contributor to the School of Engineering, including a 2010 gift that funded a soil and sediment management laboratory addressing environmentally responsible dredging to increase port capacity and accommodate larger ships.
The new building is expected to be completed in 2017.
