CMU to use large gift for new building

Carnegie Mellon University plans to brief the City Planning Commission on Tuesday on a proposed $23 million mixed-use building expected to include a ground-floor restaurant on Forbes Avenue near the Panther Hollow Bridge.

The development, described in planning documents as four stories tall and 50,000 square feet in size, will have space for Tata Consultancy Services, and a new home for the university stores, as well as academic or administrative office and open space to foster collaboration across disciplines, according to university officials.

The project will enable TCS staff to work with university faculty, staff and students, the school has said.

Tuesday’s briefing will be followed by a hearing before the commission at a later date.

The university hopes to begin work on the building in late spring with a completion date of summer 2018, Carnegie Mellon spokesman Ken Walters said Friday. The planned development is in the 4600 block of Forbes Avenue, east of South Craig Street.

The building is among the endeavors being supported by a $35 million gift to Carnegie Mellon from Tata, a global enterprise with headquarters in India. The firm is a major information technology services and consulting organization.

The donation furthered plans by Carnegie Mellon for an “innovation corridor” along Forbes.

The gift was announced in August 2015 as the fifth-largest in Carnegie Mellon history and the largest from outside the U.S.

In making the announcement, Carnegie Mellon and Tata also said the donation was to help endow Presidential Fellowships and Scholarships, part of an ongoing effort by TCS to encourage instruction nationally in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.