It is clear when you enter the light-filled Gary and Donna Hoover Hall that, more than its state-of-the-art auditorium, classrooms, and laboratories, this magnificent new facility is a tribute to hundreds of alumni who care deeply about Iowa State. You can feel the connection and sense the history in hallways whose large windows open to views of fountains trickling over a marble wall toward Marston Water Tower, which supplied water to the campus in its early days. The fountains are a feature of the H. H. Henningson Plaza, a gift from Chuck Durham to honor his father-in-law, who graduated from Iowa State in electrical engineering in 1907.

Home to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Engineering Computer Support Services, as well as labs for the Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering department, the new $27 million facility was made possible by a gift from Gary Hoover (BS ME '61) and his wife Donna. Iowa State's first "sky bridge" connects Hoover with the first phase of the ETRC, Howe Hall, a $35.5 million facility completed in 1999 and named for benefactors Stanley Howe (BSE '46) and wife Helen, major contributors to Hoover Hall as well.

The Engineering Teaching and Research Complex represents the largest capital project ever undertaken at Iowa State. Hoover Hall's Kent-Stein Foundation Auditorium holds 400 seats and is one of the largest on campus. The second floor, named for the late James Palmer (BS EE '44) and his wife Barbara (BS FCS '46), is distinguished not only by its high-tech labs and classrooms, but is also graced by sculptures commissioned with an additional gift from the Palmers.

Corporate donors such as Square D/Schneider Electric and Caterpillar partnered with alumni to make many of Hoover's labs and classrooms possible. For example, the James Gayle Boyd Product Realization Laboratory will allow students to build and test the machines they design, and the Caterpillar Mechatronics Laboratory will combine hydraulics, electronics, and mechanical testing features. The Joseph C. (BS CE '54) and Elizabeth A. Anderlik Innovative Learning Environment will give students room to both listen to lectures and meet in small planning groups.

College of Engineering leaders are confident that these and other of Hoover's many amenities will help propel the college into the top 20 engineering programs in the nation. The challenge has been met by the vision of Gary and Donna Hoover, along with Hoover Hall's many other benefactors. As Hoover Hall's prime beneficiary, it now falls to MSE to meet the challenge as well.