Construction sites will be clear after Labor Day
By Blair Busch
Staff Reporter

Students will notice an unfamiliar sight after the Labor Day weekend. The construction equipment that seemed like a permanent fixture on the east side of campus will be cleared away by Tuesday, said Don Mills, vice chancellor of student affairs.

The three-year construction project started in the summer of 2001 and officially ended in August. Leo Munson, the associate chancellor of academic support, said the phase of the project was called reshoring because all of the work was done on existing structures.

“It was a three-year commitment that we concluded,” Munson said. “This is purely existing classrooms that we brought up to date.”

The work that concluded this summer was primarily in the physics and chemistry labs in the Sid W. Richardson Building. Munson said the labs and classrooms were redesigned to be more specific to the genre of science. Updated audio/visual equipment was added along with required safety features that were not a part of the original structure, he said.

“Eye wash units, showers for chemical spills and all of the fume hoods are brand new, along with the venting system to extract the fumes,” Munson said.

Once all of the construction equipment and trailers are moved away, approximately 100 parking spaces for students will open up, Mills said. There will be 45 parking spaces in the lot at the corner of Lubbock and Bowie streets along with the opening of another lot north of the Steve and Sarah Smith Entrepreneurs Hall on Lowden Street, Mills said.

Carol Campbell, vice chancellor for finance and administration, said the $32 million reshoring phase completed the first tier of the Commission on the Future of TCU project that was started four years ago by former Chancellor Michael Ferrari and was paid for by the endowment.

“Along with the plans for the new buildings, came along a plan to dedicate some real money to refurbishing, fixing up, enhancing our existing classrooms and laboratories, studios and spaces,” Campbell said. “Doing this work has been a wonderful team effort on the academic side and deciding what needed to be done.”

The Board committed $30 million to be spent at a rate of approximately $10 million a year to fix up classrooms and labs, Campbell said.

“It was a three-year effort and it has had more impact throughout the university than any of our big, signature single projects,” Campbell said. “It’s in Sid Richardson, Winton-Scott Hall, Reed Hall, and Moudy Building and classrooms all over campus.”

Campbell said that there are currently no major projects scheduled due to a declining economy, but smaller projects will continue throughout the year.

“We spend between $6 to $8 million a year, every year on ongoing maintenance projects and there is no stopping work on projects of that size and scale,” Campbell said.

The first floor of Sadler Hall and the gym floor of Daniel-Meyer Coliseum were both finished over the summer.

“A very high priority was fixing up the first floor of Sadler,” Campbell said. “The first floor of Sadler is one of our most public places...and that space should be welcoming and look good to visitors.”

Blair Busch