University administrators, chemistry professors and Iowa State alumni gathered on the lawn near the Landscape Architecture Building on Friday as Iowa State broke ground for Troxell Hall. 

Troxel Hall will be a 400-seat auditorium intended to provide more lecture space for entry-level courses in the sciences and social sciences. The hall will be equipped with state-of-the-art technologies such as data projectors, document cameras and an audio system. 

“Its critically important that we have state-of-the-art facilities like this as we grow,” said ISU President Gregory Geoffroy.

Troxel Hall is named in honor of Douglas D. Troxel, an ISU alumnus and president and CEO of the Change Happens Foundation. Troxel is also the founder of the successful company Serena Software. 

Troxel himself was present at the groundbreaking and was proud of his Iowan roots. He described his difficult childhood and reasons for attending Iowa State at the occassion, but was happy to be back to dedicate the building.

“I owe a lot to ISU. Not everyone gets the opportunity to find their niche, but I did,” Troxel said. “It was someone at ISU that nudged me in the right direction.”

Troxel studied mathematics and after graduating, started his own company that later led to Change Happens, the organization through which the $5 million for the building was donated. 

Troxel Hall itself will be constructed between the greenhouses of Horticulture Hall and the Landscape Architecture Building. 

The building also aims to be eco-friendly and to employ several technological improvements in order to reduce its carbon footprint. The building is unique in the fact that it uses daylight from window spaces that will provide daytime lighting for 75 percent of occupied space. It also will feature recycling collection areas, energy efficient windows and a roofing system that utilizes highly reflective material and a “green roof” to reduce energy needed for cooling.

The building site also will collect, purify and drain rainwater into a local aquifer to transfer groundwater. 

“I think it’s fantastic that we’re doing these things that are sustainable,” said Chandra Petersen, senior in political science and philosophy. “I’m so excited about this building.”

Because of the nature of the courses that will be taught in Troxel, it is possible that every student that goes through ISU will have taken a class there, Geoffroy said. He is looking forward to teaching chemistry in the lecture hall and praised the contribution this facility will make toward accommodating the continually growing student body.

“It will be a very exciting place for students and for faculty,” Geoffroy said. “I can tell you I look forward to teaching chemistry classes here when it opens.”