On July 23, 1987, the University of New Orleans (UNO) dedicated its new Engineering Building, which houses a 38.3 m×4.57 m×0–2.134 m deep ship-offshore university laboratory tow tank. This paper covers the initial stages of the project and summarizes the towing tank design for ship-offshore testing. The tank is configured for three purposes: 1) conventional ship research in deep water with calm water or waves; 2) offshore structure testing with provision for observation and anchoring; 3) shallow water research in calm water, current, and waves.