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Campus construction

Your guide to what happened over the summer at the University of Toledo

Alex Campos

Workers continue to re-surface and fix patches on main campus’s Stadium Drive after an underground pipe was replaced this summer. Fixing the pipe and other related equipment will cost UT an estimated $4 million and repairs should be completed by September.

Emily Johnson, Staff Reporter

While you got your summer tan, the University of Toledo began its own makeover. Here’s a breakdown of what you missed over the summer and what’s still being constructed.

Academic Honors Village

To accommodate the demand for honors housing, UT broke ground on the new Honors Academic Village in spring 2014, located across from Tucker Hall and the Jesup Scott Honors College.

Living in MacKinnon, Scott or Tucker Hall is ideal for most honors students living on campus. However, according to Lakeesha Ransom, dean of the Jesup Scott Honors College, the honors dorms were all filled in less than 24 hours after open enrollment on Aug. 11.

Ransom said the new housing will be able to accommodate 500 students when it’s completed in fall 2015. While the honors college students will be given priority, any student is welcome to live there.

According to Ransom, the Honors Village is being built with funds supplied by American Campus Communities, a university housing development company with its headquarters in Bee Cave, Texas. ACC is one of the largest developers and managers of private student housing in the United States.

While ACC is building the Honors Academic Village, the university has design meetings with ACC to discuss building plans during construction.

Ransom said she hopes being surrounded by students that share the same academic commitment as they will help other honors students be successful.

The dean said the Honors Academic Village will have a variety of features, including an Ideas and Innovations Hub, which will be a lounge-like area in which students “can better connect and collaborate with others on projects and on several issues.”

The Village will also have its own computer lab stocked with Macs and equipped with charging stations as well as SMART Boards for students to use to work on different projects together.

Ransom also said the Village will have a fully equipped exercise facility.

Pipe outside of Lot 10

The underground pipe outside of Lot 10 was replaced this summer to improve utility and reduce maintenance costs.

Jason Toth, associate vice president of facilities and construction, said the pipe needed replacing because it supplies both steam and chilled water to the heating and cooling facilities in the buildings around main campus. He also said some of those buildings’ equipment was no longer useful and needed to be replaced, including most of the piping that is similarly used to connect south campus buildings.

Toth said the total cost to fix the pipe and similar equipment will be about $4 million, and it should be completed by the end of September.

“Parking will be disrupted only in Lot 9 for another week, then construction will be contained to the mechanical rooms,” Toth said.

Larimer Athletic Complex

The $5.5 million renovations to the Larimer Athletic Complex started in January 2014 and were completed in early August.

The remodel was funded by donations in the athletic department, Toth said. He said the remodel added 10,000 square feet to the complex, complete with a new two-story grand entryway. After renovations were completed, the weight room tripled in size and equipment.

“Larimer is the home of the Rocket Football team,” Toth said. “The only shared areas within the space are the athletic training center on the first floor and the academic center on the second floor which can be utilized by all varsity athletes.”

According to Toth, the locker room was also given a facelift with 120 custom wooden lockers and a new lounge.

Roadways, parking garages and other construction

The Memorial Field House features new landscape projects, including an added sidewalk on its south side and sidewalk repairs.

According to Douglas Collins, director of grounds and off-site facilities, a portion of Douglas road by UT’s Bancroft entrance has been repaved this summer after the harsh winter took its toll on the road.

“The entrances to UT are also going to be redone in the near future, as West Towerview Boulevard is the next priority to be repaved,” Collins said.

UT’s parking garages have also been an ongoing construction project from last year.

“Phase II of construction on the parking garage was completed this year on August 15, while phase III and IV on the east and west structural repairs will be completed over the next two summers,” Collins said.

Toth said that despite the difficult winter, UT worked hard to repair damages from the recent “polar vortex” weather.

“Reconstruction due to the harsh winter was completed as soon as conditions allowed,” Toth said. “None of the ongoing work was necessitated by the winter conditions.”

Despite the efforts of the university, some students still find the ongoing construction to be frustrating.

“It really sucks because it makes driving and navigating campus pretty difficult if you’re not from the area,” said Cj Dennis, a first-year global studies student.

On the other hand, some students feel construction is necessary as long as it’s completed before school starts.

“I don’t mind the construction,” said Diana Eby, a first-year psychology major. “After growing up here, it’s pretty much part of my life now … I just want everything to be done before classes start, that way it won’t cause any more headaches for the students.”

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