Bates Technical College officials hosted a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday afternoon to kick off construction of the new Advanced Technology Center.

The two-story, 53,000-square-foot, $23 million building, designed by McGranahan Architects and located at located at 2320 S. 19th St., will include meeting spaces for events, trade shows and conferences, and is designed to meet silver certification standards from the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The building will also include a large studio lab, which will serve as an iconic element the public will be able to view from South 19th Street.

The college purchased the property for its Central/Mohler Campus, home to KBTC Public Television and Pierce County Television, from KSTW in 2001. This is the second new building for the college since becoming part of the state’s community and technical college system in 1991, and the first since 2006, when the college opened a 44,000-square-foot building at South Campus.

More photos from the groundbreaking ceremony are available online here. More information about the project is available online at bates.ctc.edu/atc.

Bates Technical College officials hosted a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday afternoon to kick off construction of the new Advanced Technology Center. The event included representatives from Pierce County higher education, labor, and business — as well as school mascot Brutus the Bobcat. (PHOTO COURTESY BATES TECHNICAL COLLEGE)

A model of Bates Technical College’s new Advanced Technology Center. (PHOTO COURTESY BATES TECHNICAL COLLEGE)