Vermont’s Pizzagalli Foundation has made a $1 million gift commitment to support the University of Vermont’s $104 million STEM project, the largest capital project in the school’s history.

“We are thrilled that the Pizzagalli family is strongly supportive of UVM’s STEM project, including its new lab and classroom facility” said UVM president Tom Sullivan. “With this $1 million gift, we are confident that we will be successful in realizing this most important new educational and research facility on campus.”

Sullivan announced the gift at the winter meeting on Feb. 6 of the university’s Board of Trustees, where the building project was given final approval.

UVM’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) facility will be a state-of-the-art complex of labs, classrooms and research spaces that will transform the university’s central campus and fulfill a promising new interdisciplinary academic vision for UVM. Work on the 266,000 square-foot project begins in the spring of 2015 and will be completed by 2018.

In recognition of the generous gift, the large lecture hall in the STEM facility will be named in honor of the Pizzagalli family.

The Pizzagalli Foundation was formed by brothers James, Remo and Angelo Pizzagalli in Burlington, Vt., in 1988. They are the founders of PC Construction (formerly Pizzagalli Construction), which was sold to employees of the firm in 2009, making it one of the largest employee-owned construction companies in the U.S. James and Angelo Pizzagalli are UVM alumni and former members of the university’s Board of Trustees. Both men served terms as trustee chairs, and all three brothers and their families have provided generous philanthropic support to the university and other Vermont-based educational and community organizations for decades.

“The educational concentrations of study being offered by the university’s STEM faculties, and which will be enhanced by this building, are just the kind of real-world skills that graduates need to compete in our increasingly technological world,” said James Pizzagalli.

“We are delighted to join with others in helping to make this transformational project a reality. We congratulate President Tom Sullivan for his leadership in bringing this project to its launching point.”

The university is committed to raising $26 million of the $104 million project cost from non-debt sources. To date, nearly $5 million has been raised for the project.