The University of Maine campus has gone through many changes over its 160 years of existence. Next year will bring even more.
The university is working on 10 major capital projects on its campus that will be completed in 2026, ranging from new buildings to infrastructure upgrades.
More than three-quarters of UMaine’s building space has gone without meaningful renovations in the last 50 years, creating an unprecedented need for new buildings and updated infrastructure, UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy said. That need was met with a never-before-seen level of grant funding and donations, according to spokesperson Samantha Warren.
Many of the projects are funded through a mixture of university, state and federal funds, including congressionally directed spending, the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan and the UMS Transforms initiative through a $320 million donation from the Harold Alfond Foundation.
“I think we can see how our faculty, staff and students have helped to make all of these things attractive and possible. We have the talent here on this campus to warrant these kinds of facilities, and so it’s appropriate that they happen,” Ferrini-Mundy said.
One of the buildings, the Green Engineering and Materials Facility, will house the world’s largest 3D printer on land that cows once roamed.
The facility, which costs $81 million and will open in August of next year, will house classrooms and two printing bays for the 3D printers, which move on tracks about a story high. The building will feature walls of glass to make one bay visible as students, faculty and staff enter.
Like the majority of the projects to be completed, the facility will house opportunities for K-12 students to learn in the building.
“We will be the first ones in the nation to cover the whole spectrum from playing with Play-Doh to actually printing a whole house,” said Giovanna Guidoboni, interim vice president for research and dean of the Maine College of Engineering and Computing.
Having this spectrum of students in one building is supposed to encourage learning by showing what some of the capabilities are, said Roberto Lopes-Anido, a Malcom G. Long Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Across from the engineering facility on Belgrade Road, another construction site is in its homestretch.
Built on the site of an old chicken coop, the Sustainable Aquaculture Workforce Innovation Center will be a new space for one of the top marine science programs in the country, according to William Ellis, associate director and associate professor of oceanography at the School of Marine Sciences.
The space, which will be completed in time for the fall semester, will be used to research sustainable economic development, food security, and climate and community resilience.
The center will be used in partnership with companies across the state as well as the Penobscot Nation and other Wabanaki tribes to ensure UMaine’s programs align with tribal food sovereignty and other needs.
Building the $11 million center now makes sense because the current facility is booked out for two years, slowing research in an expanding industry, said Deborah Bouchard, director of UMaine’s Aquaculture Research Institute.
“Aquaculture is one of Maine’s seven technology sectors, and one that’s still growing,” she said, referring to the areas the state is targeting due to their importance to the economy. “I don’t like to say necessarily that it’s in its infancy, but it’s still growing in the trajectory like that. And so this is the perfect, perfect time to have this type of facility.”
With all of the available space and outside programs needing research conducted, Bouchard said the center could be revenue generating, a step-up from the self-sustaining old center.
The building won’t hold traditional classrooms but will have several 8-foot tanks and an area for lobster research.
The center may have a new building feel and smell for a while, but Ellis said it will “smell like fish eventually.”
While other projects that will finish next year include renovating a PFAS laboratory, funding blueberry research in Jonesboro and building a sawmill training facility, the other largest visible change to campus will occur on the north end of campus.
Construction on the new basketball facility, Morse Arena, will begin in the spring but will not be completed in 2026. The construction is coupled with nearby infrastructure upgrades that will expand parking spaces, renovate parking lots and demolish Crossland Hall.
Those plans need approval from the Board of Trustees but are slated to be finished by the fall of 2026.
Morse Arena will bring a new homecourt for the Black Bears. Although a new court and facility is exciting for the coaches and players, making the games more accessible and doubling seating from 1,300 to roughly 2,600 will be a needed upgrade for fans.
“[Black Bear fans] make a huge difference and impact in our games and with our community that we have,” women’s basketball player Maddie Fitzpatrick said. “And so I think it’s also kind of a tribute to them, too. They’re getting this facility too for their unwavering support that they’ve given us.”
The arena is one of multiple upgrades to UMaine’s athletic facilities funded through the Harold Alfond Foundation’s donations.
The donations, grants and other funding have brought excitement to campus for the coming buildings and what can be done in them, Ferrini-Mundy said.
“It would be one thing to have all of this coming in and to have really nobody here who believes in it or anything. But people are excited,” Ferrini-Mundy said. “They’re talking about, ‘Well, what can we do in that new building, and how can we configure the space to suit us so that we can move forward?’ I think it’s an exciting, kind of daunting moment for which we’re also very thankful for.”