UNM has begun work on a $130.5 million Humanities and Social Sciences building in Albuquerque to replace an aging facility plagued by flooding and accessibility problems. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham attended the groundbreaking. University officials say the new building will serve nearly every student who walks through UNM’s doors.
Construction on the new building began Thursday, Oct. 22, at the site of the previous Humanities facility, according to UNM's newsroom. As the Albuquerque Journal reports, the old Humanities facility had flooding and accessibility problems, per UNM College of Arts and Sciences Dean Jennifer Malat, and additional construction on the aging building would have required essentially redoing the entire structure, according to UNM's Nicole Dopson.
UNM's own estimate puts the project cost at $130.5 million, though Tradeline has reported a planned cost of $138 million, and the two figures have not been reconciled. Funding includes $52 million from General Obligation Bond 3, which voters approved on Nov. 5, 2024, along with $40 million in severance tax bonds and $2 million in general fund support, per UNM's newsroom. UNM is covering 20% of the facility's replacement costs itself.
Decades of Structural and Safety Problems
The building being replaced is more than 50 years old, and UNM’s newsroom says it had reached the end of its useful life. A 2020 facility condition assessment found structural failure, frequent flooding and other safety issues throughout the building, according to the university. Malat told the Journal that students nonetheless had profound experiences there as the facility deteriorated.
Nearly every UNM undergraduate is expected to set foot in the new building at some point, since university officials say students will have to take a class there during their college career. The replacement facility will house eight academic units and is designed to serve nearly all new freshmen completing core Humanities requirements, according to UNM's newsroom.
What the New Building Will Include
The new facility is planned to include classrooms, community spaces and a kitchen for students, faculty and staff, per the Journal's reporting. UNM's College of Arts & Sciences page describes additional features such as a Digital Humanities lab and a Humanities Research Center, and says the building is designed to be fully ADA-compliant with contemporary, inclusive infrastructure.
According to UNM's bond program page, the replacement building will provide 80,728 gross square feet while reducing the university's total square footage by nearly 40,000 gross square feet compared with the old Humanities building and Ortega Hall combined. The College of Arts & Sciences has also set a $10 million fundraising goal to support additional elements of the project, UNM's newsroom reports.
The Project in New Mexico’s Capital Plans
The statewide $230 million General Obligation Bond 3 supports more than 40 higher-education projects, including $52 million for UNM’s new Humanities and Social Sciences building, according to UNM HSC Newsroom. Beyond this building, UNM Campus Capital & Space Planning says a Phase 1 assessment covering 6 million square feet of Instruction & General facilities found more than $450 million in deferred-maintenance needs; the assessment information is available on its facilities reports page. The New Mexico Higher Education Department also issued a September 2023 capital-outlay recommendation.
A Broader Shift in Campus Design
The project reflects a broader higher-education trend toward incorporating cultural identity, community engagement and flexible learning environments into campus design, according to Construction Owners. UNM’s College of Arts & Sciences says the building is also designed to support in-person, hybrid and online learning.
Estimates of the completion timeline also diverge across sources: the Journal reports the building is expected to be completed by summer 2029, while other accounts in the dossier cite different target dates. Officials have not publicly reconciled the discrepancy.
Humanities' Place in an AI-Driven Era
At the groundbreaking, Lujan Grisham said she hopes New Mexico will continue funding UNM development after she leaves office in January, the Journal reported. UNM President Steve Goldstein told the Journal that a liberal arts education remains important despite the rise of artificial intelligence.
Goldstein said the humanities teach people to read, think, communicate clearly and work together, according to the Journal. He argued that computers do not provide what the humanities teach, framing the building as an investment in an education he said technology cannot replace.
