First phase of $185 million Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus opens as next phase begins

The eight-story Law & Education Building is the first completed academic facility on Texas A&M’s new downtown Fort Worth campus, which is being developed as part of the emerging Switchyard Innovation District.
Aug. 25, 2026
3 min read
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Key Highlights

  • Texas A&M-Fort Worth has opened its first academic building, the $185 million Law & Education Building.
  • The eight-story facility contains 228,000 square feet, according to the Texas A&M University System’s current project information.
  • The building houses the Texas A&M School of Law along with programs in engineering, business, healthcare, pharmacy, biotechnology, and medical laboratory sciences.
  • The opening was paired with groundbreaking for the 11-story Research & Innovation Building-A, a $300 million second phase scheduled for completion in 2029.
Courtesy of Turner Construction
Facade of new brick and glass law and education building at Texas A&M-Ft. Worth.

The Texas A&M University System has opened the first academic building on its new downtown Fort Worth campus and has already started construction on the next phase of the development. The eight-story, 228,000-square-foot Law & Education Building opened this month as the first completed facility at Texas A&M-Fort Worth representing a $185 million investment by the university system according to its original estimates.

The building brings together academic programs from Texas A&M University and Tarleton State University, including the Texas A&M School of Law. Other disciplines represented in the facility include engineering, business, healthcare, pharmacy, biotechnology, medical laboratory sciences, and performance and visualization.

Robert L. “Bob” Albritton, chairman of The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, said in a news release:

“Growth takes skilled people, sound infrastructure, useful ideas, and partners willing to invest for the long haul. Texas A&M-Fort Worth brings those things together in one place.”

Additionally, six Texas A&M System agencies will occupy the building, including Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, and the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

Why it matters

Texas A&M-Fort Worth is being developed as more than a satellite academic location because it's using campus development as a workforce and economic-development strategy. 

“This is not simply another downtown building or a collection of academic programs,” said Glenn Hegar, chancellor of The Texas A&M University System in an official statement. “It is a place where a student can meet a future employer, a researcher can sit across the table from a company facing a real problem, and a good idea can become a product, a business or a job.”

For higher-ed planners, the project is a great example of how large-scale facilities are being programmed around cross-disciplinary and industry collaboration from the get-go to attract potential students and connect them to the workforce.

Second phase already under construction

The Law & Education Building is intended to serve as the academic anchor of the broader Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus and the planned Switchyard Innovation District in southeast downtown Fort Worth, which is envisioned as a hub for education, research, entrepreneurship, and business collaboration.

Immediately after the building’s grand opening, Texas A&M officials broke ground on Research & Innovation Building-A. The Texas A&M Board of Regents approved a $300 million budget for the second-phase project earlier this year. The 11-story building will expand research and collaboration space for university researchers, state agencies, and private-sector partners.

Programs planned for the building span aerospace, engineering, agriculture, health sciences, medicine, food and nutrition science, biotechnology, transportation, and virtual production with completion scheduled for 2029.

Together, the Law & Education Building and Research & Innovation Building-A are intended to serve as the academic and research anchors of the Switchyard district. An economic-impact study cited by the university system projects that the completed campus could support more than 25,000 direct and indirect jobs and generate more than $3 billion in annual economic activity.

Turner Construction completed the first building in a joint venture with CARCON Industries and Source Building Group.

This piece was created with the help of generative AI tools and edited by our content team for clarity and accuracy.
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