Construction on Princeton’s Schmidt Hall Enters Demolition Phase
The former Guyot Hall, which previously housed the Department of Geosciences.
Riley Price October 8, 2026 | 11:03pm EDT
More than a century after Guyot Hall first opened its doors, construction crews are beginning to demolish the interior of the historic building as it transforms into Eric and Wendy Schmidt Hall, the new computer science building.
Guyot Hall, the former home of the geosciences department since 1909, is currently undergoing extensive renovation, including mostly interior renovations. Geosciences formally moved into the newly constructed Briger Hall in 2025. The sitework at Guyot includes work on exterior utilities and the removal of hardscape surrounding the building, adding a new 131,000-square-foot structure to the current 98,000-square-foot hall.
Wendy Schmidt, one of the new building’s main benefactors, expressed her vision in a statement to The Daily Princetonian:
“When Eric [Schmidt] was an undergraduate studying Electrical Engineering in the E-Quad at the far edge of Princeton’s campus, there wasn’t even a major in Computer Science … Schmidt Hall symbolizes this transformation in the way we broadly use technology and use it for good.”
The renovations were made possible by a generous transformative gift from Eric Schmidt ’76 and his wife Wendy Schmidt. Eric Schmidt served as Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011 and later as executive chairman of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. He also served as a University trustee from 2004 to 2008.
Currently, the computer science department is spread across several buildings on campus, including Friend Center and Corwin Hall. The new facility is set to bring the department together under one roof.
As the new home of the computer science department, Schmidt Hall will serve as a “vibrant and interdisciplinary hub for computational thinking,” according to the Facilities website. It is part of an initiative by the university to accommodate the growing demand for computer science education and research.