A familiar sight on the northwest corner of Troy University‘s John Lewis quad will soon be no more as demolition crews started work tearing down McCartha Hall Tuesday morning.

The building once served as the library on campus and most recently housed the social work program as well as the long-term home of the Air Force ROTC but the location will soon pave the way for new research at Troy University.

“Today’s an exciting day,” says Senior Vice Chancellor for Advance and Economic Development Walter Givhan. “We’ve got a venerable old building that’s about to come down. McCartha Hall, built in 1950, once served as the university’s library but we’re bringing it down to pave the way for a new Center for Materials and Manufacturing Sciences state-of-the-art world-class facility that is really going to take this university, Troy University into the realm of research.”

The new Center for Materials and Manufacturing Sciences will open up the door for research into plastic and how it can be recycled.

Troy is home to the world’s largest plastic recycling company KW Plastics, Givhan says that knowing this makes it even more important to expand and invest into this research on campus.

“The center has already been established but it’s already outgrown what we have,” says Givhan. “We need a new building. We need a state-of-the-art world-class facility so that we can do the kind of research that’s going to help firms like KW Plastics and the automotive industry and all of the great manufacturing initiatives in Alabama.”

For the full story watch Claudia’s report.