When I got out of the Navy, I was 27 years old and itching to finish college, and the University of Portland had this brand-new gleaming engineering building then, and that swayed me, it really did, and so I enrolled up on the Bluff.

Donald Shiley, '51

The $12 million leadership gift from Donald '51 and Darlene Shiley (left), the largest in the University's history and second largest for any Oregon private University, helps to fund the expansion and renovation of the engineering building. The Donald P. Shiley Hall renovation will add over 28,000 square feet to the engineering school, making it the single largest building on campus.

The three-story building will feature additional classrooms integrated with the latest technology and new state-of-the-art laboratories. The new addition will include large, tiered classrooms with an 80 to 90 student capacity. Plans for the building's infrastructure include upgrading technology connectivity, power supplies, conduits for data cables and phone lines, improvements to the building's HVAC system and upgrading water supply systems.

While the masonry will be preserved, windows will be replaced, and entrances refurbished. Large glass walls will be utilized to architecturally highlight the stairwells, providing for natural light inside the building.

"We're going to increase the gross square footage by 70 percent and increase the functional square footage by 40 percent. The difference is made up of hallways and larger bathrooms," Dr. James Male told the University of Portland school newspaper The Beacon. Dr. Male is the Edwin and Sharon Sweo Endowed Chair for the School of Engineering, and has taken a lead role in the building's construction and design issues.

"Spaces like these will be useful for the whole campus, not just engineers," Male continued. He told The Beacon that he anticipates professors will use the new-tiered rooms for classes too large for Franz's tiered classrooms but too small for the Buckley Center Auditorium.
     The engineering building was originally dedicated on June 12, 1949. It was the first building on campus after Waldschmidt Hall that was to be used exclusively for academic purposes. Periodic improvements to the building include a basement which was dug by hand thanks to the efforts of engineering faculty and students in the 1950s, and an elevator and expanded office space completed in the late 1990s.