National Homebuilder Pledges $250,000 Toward New Cal Poly Building


One of the largest homebuilders in the United States has committed $250,000 to help finance a new building for Cal Poly's College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

Detroit-based Pulte Homes, a Fortune 500 company, is making the gift to fund a laboratory within the new facility. The lab will be named the Pulte Homes Residential Construction Laboratory.

The largely state-funded structure is scheduled to be built on the campus's South Perimeter Drive within the next few years. Most of the space in it will be used by Cal Poly's Construction Management Department.

"We are very thankful to Pulte for the partnership commitment that this investment represents," said Allan J. Hauck, head of the Construction Management Department. "Homebuilding is one of the key drivers of the U.S. economy and is consistently viewed as a leading economic indicator of the overall health of the economy. Because of this, it is critical that the Construction Management Department prepare our students to be able to play leadership roles in the residential construction market.

"This gift from Pulte Homes will create a unique space dedicated to the instruction of managers seeking professional careers in this vital market," Hauck said.

"As a company," said John M. Drew, Orange County-based director of construction for Pulte Homes, "we need great people to elevate the quality of residential home building, and through our support of this lab we see a successful partnership with the students and faculty at Cal Poly.

"Pulte Homes recognized and selected Cal Poly because of the strength of the program and the hands-on approach that students experience in the Construction Management Department," Drew said. "The students have demonstrated this through success at national competitions and by what our recruiters have witnessed on campus."

Contact: Ray Ladd
(805) 756-7432, rladd@calpoly.edu