Navigating a campus dotted with construction projects might be inconvenient for students and faculty, but administrators insist these efforts are meant to improve the education students receive at the U.
The three-year renovation of the Marriott Library should be finished sometime next July. While the project calls for a complete remodel of the building, the library will remain open to students, though some areas have limited access.
“The remodel will change the way the library does business,” said Joseph Harman, director of Campus Design and Construction. “It will focus more on the user of the library.”
Once completed, the library will have a new “Knowledge Commons” on the second floor where 400 additional computers and a new electronic book-retrieval system will be available to students. The building is also being updated so it can better withstand a potential earthquake.
Another addition to the library will be a special collections floor. The public will have limited access to this area, where rare books from all over the world will be stored for viewing.
Construction work on the new Sutton Geology and Geophysics Building on the east side of campus will continue through the year. The structure will have 30 percent more laboratory space than the previous geology building and a state-of-the-art earthquake-monitoring center.
A walkway will be constructed to connect the new Sutton Geology Building to the existing William Browning Building, which houses many of the departments in the College of Science. The project is slated to be completed by January 2009.
“Students will receive better training and have greater interactions with the connection of the two buildings,” Harmon said.
A new Tanner Humanities Building is also being built in lower campus just east of the Union. The facility will provide a more spacious home for the departments of history and philosophy, the international, Asian and Latin American studies programs and the Tanner Humanities Center, which are currently housed in Carlson Hall. The building should be completed by May.
Many construction projects are also underway at the University Hospital, located in upper campus.
Steve Blanton, project manager of construction at the hospital, explained that there are about 100 renovations going on at the hospital.
“Our three major tasks are adding an entire west pavilion, two more floors to the critical care center and three floors to the parking structure,” Blanton said. The top of the parking structure will also be the location of the new helicopter pad for Life Flight.
Including the hospital projects, there are about 500 remodeling and construction projects going on at the U. Projects range from $50,000 to $100 million each.
“We ask everyone to be patient with our work because in the end it will enhance their learning experience,” Harmon said.