February 25, 2022

EAST GREENSBORO, NC – Balfour Beatty, in association with C2 Contractors, successfully delivers the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex (ERIC) for North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s (NC A&T) College of Engineering (COE).

To commemorate the completion of the state-of-the-art facility, a grand opening, and ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on February 17. Attendees included Balfour Beatty leadership, project team members and construction partners, and NC A&T leadership including Chancellor, Harold L. Martin, Sr., Associate Vice Chancellor, Andrew Perkins, and Dean of the COE, Robin Coger. Local dignitaries were also in attendance including Roy Cooper, North Carolina Governor, Nancy Vaughan, Mayor of Greensboro, Gladys Robinson, North Carolina Senator, and Pearl-Burris Floyd, Secretary of the University of North Carolina’s Board of Governors.

Named in honor of NC A&T’s longest-serving and current chancellor, the ERIC is a 130,000-square-foot, multifunctional facility that will dramatically enhance research and instructional capacities of America’s largest Historically Black College and University (HBCU) that leads the nation in the graduation of African American engineers. Balfour Beatty and C2 Contractors partnered with EYP to design the facility which features glass-paneled exteriors and innovative interior learning spaces intentionally designed for the future of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

As the most complex and technology-driven project on NC A&T’s campus, the ERIC includes experiential learning, prototyping, and living laboratories; thematic research, maker and fabrication spaces; ideation seminar and conference rooms; additional staff offices; and modern reconfigurable classrooms. The facility also features new wet and dry laboratories including Manufacturing and Process Systems and Core Research High Bays; Bio-Mechanical, Cyber Security, and System Engineering laboratories; and strategically designed green and open spaces.

"Balfour Beatty and our partners are proud to deliver our second project on NC A&T’s campus – the new ERIC facility,” said Jimmy Anderson, Balfour Beatty project executive in Raleigh. “Our project team, in a very collaborative manner, worked closely with the design and owner team from day one to achieve our client’s goals of building a cutting-edge educational complex intentionally designed to create new opportunities for HBCU students and faculty. From inventing prototypes in the maker space to fostering innovation that fuels start-up companies, Balfour Beatty is honored to be a part of a project that will continue to provide endless professional development and career opportunities positively impacting the engineering industry and local community.”

"Balfour Beatty demonstrated exceptional proactive solutions throughout the construction process,” said Andrew M. Perkins, NC A&T vice chancellor for facilities. “That dedication and superior construction management at all levels made this a quality project, a project under budget, and a project completed ahead of schedule."

Constructed to serve as an innovation ecosystem, the ERIC will promote an inclusive campus climate and encourage the cultivation of partnerships and collaborations. It will also serve as the new hub of innovation to support the growing number of enrolled students in the engineering field. Expanding on NC A&T’s realm of possibilities, the new ERIC facility is located on the former site of the original Hayes-Taylor YMCA at Dudley and Market Streets.

For more information on NC A&T’s COE program please visit ncat.edu/coe.