Investment
LSU Construction Management Class of 1972, featuring Art Favre (first row, sixth from left), Eddie Rispone (first row, seventh from left), and Pepper Rutland (second row, fourth from left).
The Construction & Advanced Manufacturing Building is a $107 million project. In addition to $42 million in capital outlay funds from the State of Louisiana, LSU is actively partnering with donors to contribute $65 million in philanthropic support for the project by January 2028.
Leading gifts made to date include a $15 million leadership gift from Art Favre, founder of Performance Contractors and a graduate of the first LSU construction management class in 1972; a $7.5 million investment by MMR, founded by Pepper Rutland, also a graduate of the first LSU construction management class; and a $5 million investment by Cajun Industries, founded by LSU civil engineering alumnus Lane Grigsby and now led by fellow LSU graduates Todd Grigsby and Mike Moran.
Other LSU construction management and engineering alumni are leading the way on the project, including S&B Engineers & Constructors, co-founded by the late William A. Brookshire, Ph.D., an LSU chemical engineering alumnus; LEMOINE, a family business led by Lenny Lemoine, an LSU agriculture business alumnus; ISC Constructors, co-founded by Eddie Rispone (graduate of the first LSU construction management class) and Jerry Rispone, an LSU electrical engineering alumnus; Rene (LSU mechanical engineering) and Kay Joyce; Harry (LSU petroleum engineering) and Norma Longwell; LA Contractors’ Educational Trust Fund via the LSU Construction Industry Advisory Council; and DSLD Homes, for which LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business alumni Lee Foster and Jeff Purpera Jr. are partners.