New Engineering Discovery Building To Prepare Future Leaders for Texas Industries
UT Austin Completes $820 Million Engineering Facilities Expansion
The University of Texas at Austin has completed an $820 million expansion of its engineering facilities with the opening of the Autry C. Stephens Engineering Discovery Building, adding laboratories, classrooms and research space for programs serving Texas energy, chemical, materials and biotechnology industries.
The 207,000-square-foot building will house the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering and McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering. UT Austin said students are expected to begin using the facility in the spring.
The project was supported by The Stephens Greth Foundation and is named for Autry C. Stephens, a UT engineering alumnus and founder of Endeavor Energy Resources. Stephens earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in petroleum engineering from the university in 1961 and 1962, respectively.
The facility includes more than 70,000 square feet of collaborative laboratory space, 15,000 square feet of teaching laboratories and 25,000 square feet for classrooms, conference rooms, offices and gathering areas. UT Austin said the layout is intended to bring undergraduate students, faculty and graduate researchers into shared research settings and support hands-on coursework through flipped-classroom instruction.
The building connects with two other Cockrell School facilities: the Engineering Education and Research Center, which opened in 2017, and the Gary L. Thomas Energy Engineering Building, which opened in 2022. University officials said the connected facilities are intended to increase interaction among engineering disciplines and industry partners.
Cockrell School Dean Roger Bonnecaze said the new building follows more than a decade of philanthropy and capital investment in the school’s facilities and will expand faculty-led research opportunities for students.
A public-art installation by Maya Lin is also planned for the site. Scheduled to open in April 2027, the work will be Lin’s first public artwork in Texas, according to UT Austin. The installation will include a curved concrete structure with embedded lights designed to reflect the constellations visible over Texas on Sept. 15, 1883, the university’s founding date. Support for the artwork came from alumnus Peyton Yates.