Students and faculty at Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) began their winter semester this month at a brand-new building.

The 515,000 square foot, four-story facility was designed by famous American architect Antoine Predock and takes inspiration from Qatar’s “desert landscape.”

It boasts three video production studios, a multimedia newsroom, a two-story research library, a black box theater, multiple editing rooms and even an in-house museum.

However, most of these features are not yet ready for use.

And a grand opening to mark the new building is expected sometime in the coming year.

Looking ahead

NU-Q is a journalism and communication school, and one of six American universities operating in Education City.

Last year, the school renewed its lease with Qatar Foundation for another decade, meaning it will continue to remain in Qatar until at least 2028.

The new building broke ground in 2011 and was originally supposed to open in 2013.

In a statement last month, NU-Q’s dean and CEO Everette Dennis said:

“It has been five years since we broke ground for the new building and it has taken significant team work to get this building completed. When finished, it will be the premier journalism and communication school in the region.”

Prior to moving in, the eight-year-old school was located at the top floor of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, and had a temporary studio building.

It also briefly operated inside of Texas A&M University at Qatar.

Thoughts?