A ‘foundational’ project: Inside the first building of Fort Worth’s new Texas A&M campus
The Texas A&M University System celebrated a milestone for its new Fort Worth campus with a topping off ceremony Monday.
The ceremony, commemorating the last beam being placed in the new Law and Education building, was attended by city and county leaders, stakeholders and university leadership.
“I think the bottom line is if you offered Texas A&M any city in the state of Texas to come in and do something like this, we would have chosen, and we did choose Fort Worth and Tarrant County,” Chancellor John Sharp said in his remarks. “Because of the people on this stage, because of the people involved in building this city, and because we believe that it is the most dynamic, futuristic city in the state of Texas, period,”
The Amon G. Carter Foundation gifted Texas A&M-Fort Worth almost 1 acre across the street from Fort Worth Central Station in May. Sharp said the land is part of Texas A&M’s 10 year plan for the campus, which includes a potential expansion through the construction of additional buildings.
At the ceremony, local leaders remarked on the transformative effect Texas A&M-Fort Worth will have on the city.
Mayor Mattie Parker said the campus is a marquee project for Fort Worth.
“There will be projects in this city that are foundational, that are catalytic — and as your mayor, I think this is probably the most catalytic project I’ll get to be a part of,” Parker said.
The campus will be home to public-private partnerships designed to prepare students for the workforce. Companies including aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and eyecare maker Alcon are expected to collaborate with the university.
“This is going to be an incredible driver of economic prosperity and development and innovation, and the entire county and region is going to benefit from it,” said Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare.
Robert Ahdieh, dean of the Texas A&M School of Law, said the facility will allow donors and employers to physically see the commitment Texas A&M is making to the law school by investing in it. Ahdieh said as the campus grows, the law school will be able to hire more faculty, and eventually expand its class of students.
Inside, the Law and Education building is mostly a concrete shell. Ground broke on the roughly $200 million, eight-story building in June 2023, and it’s expected to be complete in summer 2026.
On Monday afternoon, a breeze gusted through the eighth floor, which will be administrative offices. Wooden railings made of two-by-fours were all that separated visitors from the edge of the structure.
On the third floor, home of the future reading room, dozens of pallets of tall glass windows waited for installation. Metal rebar poked up from the ground and a film of dust blanketed the floor.
Work is slightly more complete on the ground floor, which will be the lobby and have law school facilities. Metal beams separated different rooms and rainbow-hued clusters of wiring poked out of unfinished electrical outlets.
The campus will consist of three buildings— the Law and Education Building, Research and Innovation Building and the Gateway Building.
Planning for the estimated $260 million Research and Innovation Building is ongoing, and it has yet to break ground. It will house public-private partnerships, A&M state agencies and the 8th Division Texas Business Court.
The Gateway Building will be constructed last; the building, expected to house community spaces, will be located at the site of the current Texas A&M School of Law.
The city’s first tier one research university, the project is leading a wave of redevelopment transforming a long underutilized corridor of downtown.
The campus has already sparked the development of nearby properties. Including Texas A&M-Fort Worth, over $1 billion of development is planned for downtown east of the Fort Worth Convention Center.
One block north of the future campus, extensive renovations of the Fort Worth Convention Center are underway. A 408-apartment community is planned for 1000 Jones St. Hillwood, the developer of AllianceTexas, purchased a block north of the campus in October 2023.
This story was originally published November 11, 2024 at 4:47 PM.
