Hatch celebrated for gift to ExCEL
Winners of the Hatch scholarship met with Gerald Hatch and members of the Hatch team to thank them for their contributions toward the Engineering ExCEL building.
Gerald Hatch and his namesake company were celebrated Wednesday for their support of the Engineering Centre for Experiential Learning (ExCEL).
Gerald Hatch, founder and first president of the global engineering consultancy Hatch, committed $2M to the ExCEL project in September.
At the same time, Kurt Strobele, chair of hatch and a McMaster engineering alumnus, committed $500,000, with a matching $500,000 from the company itself.
The Hatch-related gifts will cover more than one-third the cost of the $8.5M project.
Once completed, the facility is to be a flexible space of about 35,000 square feet, adjacent to the John Hodgins Engineering Building.
There, engineering students will use assembly bays, workshops, boardrooms and other spaces to collaborate on research projects, community endeavours, clubs and activities.
“It gives us great pleasure to be able to support this project,” Hatch said in September. “We have worked to make Hatch a model of innovative thinking, and the concept of this centre is entirely consistent with the values that drive our company.”
A special on-campus event, hosted by University president Patrick Deane and Engineering dean Ishwar Puri, was held yesterday to thank Gerald Hatch and the Hatch company.
The University approval process is under way to have the ExCEL centre named in honour of Gerald Hatch.
The ExCEL Centre will act as a living laboratory for students, who will be able to draw lessons directly from its structure and systems. The Centre will be designed with these functions accessible to all.
The facility itself will be built as a super-efficient building, drawing energy from geothermal and solar energy systems that will see it drawing minimal energy from the public grid.
Construction is expected to begin in spring 2015 and be completed by summer 2016.
