The $125 million bond issue that Rhode Island voters passed in November to support new engineering facilities will add to the construction activity already going on around campus:

» Thanks to support from Rhode Island voters in 2010, the $68 million Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences is well under construction on a portion of what was the parking lot between the Chafee Social Science Center and White Hall. Expected to be open for classes in September 2016, it will serve more than 7,000 URI students who take chemistry each year. Check out tinyurl.com/urichemistry for a live construction site feed.

» To accommodate the 6,000 students now living on campus, URI Dining Services recognized the need for an expanded and renovated Butterfield Hall. The $8 million project is being done in stages and completion is expected by September 2015.

» The new Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Center, under construction at 19 Upper College Road, is expected to open in February 2015. Designed by LLB Architects of Pawtucket, the new building is in keeping with the main campus roadway’s residential style. Currently located in Adams Hall, the Center provides a range of programs and services to create and maintain an open, safe, and inclusive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community members and friends.

» And for the 2016–17 academic year, turning the abandoned South Street Power Station in Providence into a state-of-the-art Nursing Education Center where URI and Rhode Island College will share facilities, along with Brown University, is a strategic use of this long-neglected space. The opening of this 133,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility is an important step in creating a health care hub for the region.