Audacious Growth

It's an exciting time to be part of Shocker Nation! To give you a sense of the pace of change on our campus, here's a timeline of the remaking of WSU over the past six years. 

Timeline

(Major building/facility openings in bold)

2014

  • Shocker Hall, a $65 million student housing complex opens near the center of campus.
  • Koch Global Trading Center opens inside Clinton Hall.
  • Multi-million-dollar renovation of Rhatigan Student Center completed. 
  • Braeburn Golf Course closed to make way for development.
  • Wheatshocker Apartments razed to make way for the Experiential Engineering Building.
  • Kansas Family Business Forum (KFBF) Innovation Hub opens in Devlin Hall.
  • Koch Industries and the Fred & Mary Koch Foundation give $3.75 million for a community makerspace in Experiential Engineering Building. The makerspace would eventually be named GoCreate, a Koch collaborative.

2015

  • Airbus announces plans to relocate its Wichita engineering center to a new 90,000-square-foot building on campus.
  • WSU announces plans for a major commitment to downtown Wichita with the creation of WSU Old Town, a complex of community-focused facilities.
  • Plans announced for Braeburn Square, a 20-acre mixed-use development with restaurants, shops and lodging.

2016

  • A four-bay Food Truck Plaza opens near the National Institute for Aviation Research on WSU's main campus. 
  • Plans announced for The Flats at WSU, a 112-unit student housing apartment complex.
  • Plans announced for a $9.5 million Law Enforcement Training Center in partnership with the city of Wichita and Sedgwick County. The facility would house WSU's Criminal Justice program.

2017

  • Experiential Engineering Building opens.
  • Airbus Americas Engineering holds a grand opening its new facility.
  • Dassault Systemes holds a ribbon-cutting for its 3DExperience Center.
  • GoCreate makerspace holds its grand opening.
  • WSU and Wichita Area Technical College (WATC) receive the final approval needed to form an affiliation. WATC announces plans to change their name to WSU Tech.
  • Shocker Studios, a state-of-the-art professional production space, opens in south Wichita.
  • WSU's first parking garage opens near the Rhatigan Student Center.
  • YMCA and Wichita State announce partnership for a new student wellness center and fitness facility on campus.
  • A free-standing Starbucks opens. First building in Braeburn Square development.
  • The Flats at WSU opens.

2018

  • The Law Enforcement Training Center opens.
  • Partnership Building 2 opens with Spirit AeroSystems and FirePoint Innovations Center as major tenants.
  • The original Pizza Hut building is relocated and reopened as the Pizza Hut Museum.
  • Plans for Woolsey Hall, a new home for the Barton School of Business, are announced.
  • WSU Tech announces plans to move its Southside Center to East Harry, joining Shocker Studios and WSU South at that facility.
  • Wonder, an independent experiential learning school, opens.
  • WSU Haysville satellite location opens.

2019

  • WSU Bookstore opens a satellite location in Braeburn Square development.
  • National Institute for Aviation Research Crash Dynamics Lab breaks ground.
  • The Suites at WSU, a new residence hall near The Flats at WSU, opens.
  • Partnership Building 3 breaks ground.
  • Hyatt Place hotel breaks ground.
  • Fuzzy's Taco Shop  opens as the first restaurant tenant in Braeburn Square.
  • The Experiential Engineering Building is renamed the John Bardo Center in honor of the late WSU president.
  • Journey Asian Grill  is announced as the second restaurant tenant in Braeburn Square.
  • Fortune 500 company NetApp announced it was exploring the relocation of its Wichita operations to WSU's Innovation Campus.