Immersive learning hub and campus visitor center breaks ground at Texas A&M
A three-story, more than 211,000-sf, immersive, hands-on learning hub recently broke ground at Texas A&M University. The Aplin Center will also serve as a campus visitor center and will be the largest mass timber project on a university campus in Texas.
It will feature glue-laminated columns and beams, and cross laminated timber floor and roof panels. All timber used will be sourced from Texas sawmills. The project will require more than 3.5 million board feet of timber.
The center will house immersive learning labs for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Mays Business School. Labs will focus on fermentation, dairy, meat science, coffee, floral design, enology, as well as sensory, culinary, and product development kitchens, and retail. Another major component will be a restaurant that will allow students to gain hands-on food service and management experience.
As part of its hospitality emphasis, the facility will house the relocated campus visitor center, which for decades has been in the space-constrained Rudder Tower. It will include a 170-seat theater and a 70-seat multipurpose room. The move is expected to help the visitor center better fulfill its purpose of inspiring prospective students.
Visitors will be welcomed by a timber surround that emphasizes innovation, wellness, and sustainability in its design approach. Travel center chain Buc-ee’s founder and CEO Arch “Beaver” Aplin III contributed $60 million to the project. As a passionate proponent of the outdoors and nature, Aplin envisioned an inviting landscape that accentuates and preserves the mature oak trees already on site.
“I want visitors’ jaws to drop when they walk in the front door—actually even before they get to the door,” said Aplin. “The curb appeal of this center will be incredible, and every step they take toward it will build. When they get inside, we won’t let them down. It’s going to be even better.”
The project is scheduled to open in 2028.
On the project team:
Owner and/or developer: Texas A&M University System
Design architect: Pickard Chilton
Interior Designer: DLR Group
Architect of record: DLR Group
MEP engineer: IA Naman for MEP CORE+SHELL and Moose Engineering for MEP LAB
Structural engineer: MKA, IES
General contractor/construction manager: Manhattan Construction
