The North Avenue Academic Building (NAAB) is near completion and soon enough students and faculty members will be able to admire the outstanding new building. NAAB will house the health and computer sciences programs.

“With the high demand for health professionals, Kean University is determined to offer qualitatively superior programs in world-class facilities,” says President Dawood Farahi. “The North Avenue Academic Building will be such a facility, pushing the boundaries of 21st century learning.”

Designed by the award-winning Gruskin Group, who also designed the Green Lane Academic Building (GLAB), the NAAB will have numerous amenities that students and faculty members will be able to enjoy. This six-story building will feature a 500-seat auditorium that will have a Constellation Acoustic sound system by Meyer Sound for presentations, lectures and concerts. It will also have surround sound for any content in 2D or 3D.

Adding to the superior technology available, students will be able to enjoy an interactive iTouch wall located in the lobby. This wall will be 30-feet wide and 7-feet tall, allowing students to play games, collaborate with others and search online. Students will also have the chance to work with other students on an interactive audience collaboration system that allows users to post content on the main screen from a tablet, laptop or smartphone. Up to 100 students at a time can use this system. To add to the numerous eateries that Kean offers students, NAAB will house fast-casual bakery and café chain Au Bon Pain.

Kenneth Gruskin, who is the Principal of Gruskin Group, commented that “the building design embraces the evolving reality that today’s plugged-in, technology savvy students can learn as much outside the classroom as in it.”

He continues to say that the amount of lounges, breakout spaces, outdoor terraces and more allows the building to be facilitated in “new ways for students and faculty to interact, socialize, engage, learn, and study both in and outside the classroom.”

NAAB is located on the corner of Morris and North Avenue within the Vaughn-Eames parking lot on the Kean University Union campus.