At Tuesday night’s Student Government Association meeting, plans for new buildings on campus were announced by Nick Barton, the SGA’s secretary of registry and student representative on the Campus Physical Planning Council.
Barton said the next major building project on campus, a new six story physical sciences building between Goessmann Laboratory and North Pleasant Street, has $85 million of funding.
Plans for Bartlett Hall’s renovations are also under development, Barton said.
“Part of it is that we get authorized for the funding. Part of it is that those departments bring in more money,” Barton said. “The Bartlett replacement building is actually the very next thing … They already have done a site selection for the Bartlett replacement building.”
Barton said that part of the Bartlett replacement funds is going into the New Academic Classroom Building, which is being built right next to Hasbrouck Laboratory. The rest of replacement funds are going into an expansion on South College.
“They’re going to build a gigantic building jutting out from the back,” he said.
The council plans for the majority of new buildings on campus to conform to a ‘buddy system’ whereby new buildings will be paired with old ones. This will allow funding to be used for renovations to older buildings while new ones are constructed.
“For example, West Experiment Station is not handicap accessible,” Barton said. “By attaching this new physical sciences building to it, they can upgrade the heating and air conditioning, the handicap accessibility, and the bathrooms. That’s what they’re trying to do with as many of the new buildings on campus as they can.”
Further plans for the near future include replacing the Hills House with an integrated design building to house architecture, landscape architecture and related departments.
A new building will also be erected at the north end zone of the football stadium to house offices for the football program as well as training and medical facilities.
The press box will also be improved, either by preserving the current one and building on top of it or constructing a completely new building.
Barton also confirmed that a new Champion Center is going to be built behind the ice rink to house the basketball team’s offices, practice area and training facilities. This project will cost $25 million, $15 million of which will be privately funded.
In addition, Hampshire Dining Hall will be closed next semester due to renovations, with the Hampden Gallery building, which currently hosts Pita Pit in the Southwest Residential Area, will be used as a temporary dining hall although it will not make up entirely for all the lost space.
After the Hampshire renovations are completed, Hampden will be used as a satellite student union.
Finally, Barton said that while renovations for Herter Hall and the humanities buildings are not likely, “in even close to the short term,” the potential renovations of Hampden and the Student Union are now undergoing a $400,000 study phase.
He encouraged the SGA senators and any interested students to view Campus Planning’s Master Plan for the next 50 years, which can be viewed online or in the newly published FY13 capital plan.
In addition, Vice President Garrett Gowen confirmed that $1,555 has been used to fund two shuttles and one van on Election Day to bring students from campus to the polling station in 20-minute intervals.
Matthew Plumb can be reached at [email protected].
