Ave Maria University has broken ground on an $11 million academic building on its Ave Maria, Fla., campus that will house the school's nursing program and provide venues for the performing arts.
The university says the building, situated on the main quad of the campus, will provide more than 37,000 square feet of space for classrooms, a nursing laboratory, 13 private offices for faculty, and staff space for Campus Ministry and the Mother Teresa Project, a student volunteer project. The building also will house the Mother Teresa Museum, as well as a 400-seat performance hall and a 125-seat auditorium with a thrust stage.
Ave Maria has raised more than $6.5 million to pay for phase one of the construction, which will consist of the main structure of the building and the interior of the wing that houses the auditorium.
Phase one construction will begin in early 2017 and should be completed by year’s end.
Ave Maria University was founded in 2003 and occupied a temporary site in Naples, Fla., until it moved to its permanent campus in Ave Maria in fall 2007. The university has 1,102 students, including 1,042 undergraduates, and has 92 faculty members, 67 of whom are full-time. The campus has residence halls with a capacity for 1,300 students and rests on a tract of more than 300 acres.
