JANUARY 20, 2016
Black Mountain Campus expansion celebrated
Aquila Hall project adds classrooms, labs, amphitheater, and astronomy viewing deck.
PHOENIX-Paradise Valley Community College is celebrating the newest enhancement to the PVCC Black Mountain campus – completion of the $10 million, 20,000 square foot construction of Aquila Hall.
The public is invited to join Dr. Paul Dale, PVCC president; MCCCD Chancellor Rufus Glasper; architectural and construction partners Dick & Fritsche Design Group (DFDG) and Austin Commercial; and college personnel at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, January 29, at 10 am. The program will be followed by an open house and building tour.
PVCC at Black Mountain is located at 34250 N. 60th Street, Scottsdale, AZ, 85266, just off East Carefree Highway.
Aquila Hall is the second instructional building on the PVCC at Back Mountain campus, joining Orion Hall. The new building is a stunning, light-filled space nestled in the heart of the desert property. It includes three multi-purpose classrooms, two Science labs and a Science classroom, computer lab, tutoring center, high-powered astronomy telescope and viewing deck, student study and collaboration areas, faculty offices, and classrooms. An outdoor amphitheater has also been added.
The addition of laboratory science courses completes the Black Mountain campus transition to a comprehensive site where students can now earn their AA or AS degree in one location.
The building is named Aquila in reference to the clear night skies at Black Mountain and the regular star parties hosted by the campus. A constellation in the northern sky, Aquila is Latin for “eagle,” and it represents the bird that carried Zeus/Jupiter’s thunderbolts in Greco-Roman mythology. The brightest star in Aquila is Altair, a white star that is about 17 light-years from Earth.
PVCC at Black Mountain, serving the north central and northeast Valley communities, is situated on 10 developed acres of an 82-acre parcel of land at the foot of iconic Black Mountain. The initial 10,000-square foot facility, Orion Hall, opened in the fall of 2009, in a public/private/non-profit partnership with the Foothills Community Foundation (FCF ) and Desert Foothills YMCA.
The Aquila Hall project was funded by the 2004 MCCCD General Obligation Bonds.
