Scattered across three floors of the Engineering Quadrangle, the Operations Research and Financial Engineering (ORFE) department is making plans for a new home across the street.
The ORFE building will be built on the corner of Olden and William streets, just north of the Friend Center.
"We're very excited about it; the dean's very excited about it" said department chair Erhan Cinlar. As one of Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science Maria Klawe's major projects, the construction has been met with enthusiasm.
"There'll be lots of winners here," Cinlar said. "We'll be getting a new building and we'll vacate valuable space [in the E-Quad]."
The ORFE department is relatively new, just about six years old, and also one of the fastest growing departments on campus.
With its growing number of departmental majors — 52 in the Class of 2005 — ORFE has become the largest engineering department.
According to Cinlar, the new building will be an ideal means of providing appropriate space for undergraduate majors, graduate students and a growing faculty.
More and more students are enrolling in ORFE classes, increasing the need for new faculty members. Graduate student admissions are also on the rise, Cinlar said.
ORFE major Rafe Steinhauer '07, however, was less sure about the need for new space. Although he agreed "there are a lot of ORFE students, classes in Friend are fine," he said. "I think it depends more on what the graduate [students need]."
The building will be equipped with facilities tailored directly to the department's needs.
Distributed among four floors, there will be a lecture hall; several seminar and precept rooms; offices for faculty, technical staff and postdoctoral fellows; bullpens for graduate students; and two lounges, one each for undergraduate and graduate students.
Another important feature of the building will be "studios" — computer rooms for classes and research — which are the ORFE equivalent of labs.
With the spaces for undergraduates, graduate students and faculty interspersed, "there will be a lot of interaction," Cinlar said.
He said he is particularly excited about the planned atrium that will allow natural light to pervade each floor.
The new building will replace two abandoned buildings purchased by the University some time ago. The external style will attempt to maintain the character of the block with a residential feel.
Princeton Borough's zoning board has not yet approved the project.
However, the department is confident that approval is forthcoming and plans have been made to move in to the new space by September 2006.
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