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Construction of UWM Research Facility Reaches Milestone

Crews on Thursday hoist a beam atop the Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex as construction continues.

UWM’s new complex continues taking shape near the intersection of Kenwood and Maryland.

The facility is one of three new structures the university is dedicating to scientific research - at a combined cost of nearly a quarter-billion dollars.

College of Letters and Science Dean Rodney Swain calls the developments “unprecedented.”

“All of this growth is really targeted to our students and our community partners,” Swain says.

He says new research space at the KIRC, the Freshwater Sciences building on East Greenfield, and at the Innovation Accelerator under construction on the county grounds, targets community development.

“What we trying to do is partner with companies to spur research and development techniques and technologies that will help the regional and national economy,” Swain says.

Artist rendering of new KIRC

Swain says the new construction will benefit students through the addition of new state of the art classroom and lab space.

The Dean says the new space is attracting additional sources of public and private funding and positions the school for the future.

“We believe that cutting edge research quantitatively and qualitatively impact the financial well-being of our community and of our nation.”