It shares his name with that of Henry A. Rowland, Class of 1870, physicist and first president of the American Physical Society.

A thirty year bond was taken to cover most of the cost, which resulted in annual payments by Rensselaer of $202,000.

[7] Each floor of the building is dedicated to a different discipline of engineering and contains many major research facilities and a large number of academic classrooms.

The basement contains several laboratories, including the mechatronics lab and the geotechnical centrifuge research center.

Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory in the former high bay area of the JEC provides undergraduate students from multiple engineering disciplines, management, humanities, architecture, and science with a facility and the resources to work together on challenging, real-world problems.