The University of Santo Tomas celebrated the completion of the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, O.P. Building, with blessing rites that took place on December 10, 2021.
Also included in the rites were the UST Link Bridge over España Boulevard, the campus Stormwater Drainage System, and the roads that cover the drainage system. The event was made available for online viewing through the UST Facebook Page.
A Eucharistic Celebration followed the external blessing rites, presided over by UST Vice-Rector Rev. Fr. Isaias D. Tiongco, O.P., and concelebrated with the Dominican Fathers. After the Mass, the various floors and offices of the Frassati building were blessed by the Dominican Fathers.
The 23-storey Frassati Building will be the new home of the UST Senior High School, which was established in 2016. Prior to occupying Frassati Building, the SHS students and faculty members occupied the Blessed Buenaventura Garcia Paredes O.P. Building inside the campus.
Aside from the Senior High School, the Frassati Building now also houses the College of Information and Computing Sciences, the DOST-TOMASInno Center, the Santo Tomas e-Service Providers (STePs) and the Educational Technology Center.
The new building features smart classrooms, a two-storey library, an auditorium, a cafeteria, a Chapel, a gym, and laboratories. There are also parking spaces in the building.
The Link Bridge, originally completed in March 2021, will provide Thomasians safe and direct passage without going out of the campus to the Frassati Building and back. The Frassati Building is located at the corner of Extremadura and Cayco Streets.
The new Water Drainage System is the University’s flood-control project, whose construction was started in 2018. It provides detention facilities under the campus roads that could accommodate four-and-a half Olympic-sized swimming pools’ volume of rainwater.
The projects were completed through the coordination of the UST Facilities Management Office under the leadership of its Director Rev. Fr. Dexter A. Austria, O.P., together with IPM Construction and Development Corporation, ME Tech Construction, Inc., Datem Inc., DCCD Engineering Corporation, Design Coordinates, Inc., and Casas + Architects, Inc.
“The improvements will lead to the betterment of our students’ and stakeholders’ campus experience. The benefits of these will not only be felt by us now, but also by the future generations of Thomasians,” Fr. Austria said.
The building is named after the patron of the SHS, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, OP, a young lay Dominican who dedicated his short life to social justice issues and to aiding those in poverty. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in May 1990.
