Build It and They Will Matriculate

New Jersey's design and construction firms are twice lucky. The state's $12billion, 10-year school construction program will spread around piles of money for rebuilding the state's K-12 infrastructure. But colleges and universities, too, are in the midst of a building boom. Most of the state's 57

Late last year, a survey by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education polled 42 colleges and universities. It identified construction and renovation projects worth more than $4.7 billion either under-way or planned for over the next seven years. Princeton University's program may be the most ambitious; it reported more than $750-million worth of projects that are either in progress or that have been completed over the past two years. Rutgers described 144 projects worth a total of $237 million under construction with another 55 projects costing $160 million in planning. Over the next 10 years, the construction frenzy will include Montclair State University ($461 million), Rowan University in Glassboro ($270 million), The College of New Jersey in Ewing ($250 million) and Fairleigh Dickinson University at its Madison-Florham Park and TeaneckHackensack campuses ($50 million).