Last fall, the Board of Trustees approved design spending for the first five
projects in a long-range capital improvement plan.
Construction of the projects (two new academic buildings,
a new ice arena, new student housing, and an electric
utility project) begins next summer, with an eye toward
completing first-phase construction before classes resume
in the fall of 2006.
"It's going to be a busy place for a while,"
said Robert Keller, university architect. "This
is, indeed, the calm before the storm."
Construction planning began in spring of 2001 when 13 administrators began
gathering to look at short- and long-term building needs. By the following
spring, that group unveiled a preliminary plan that calls for spending
$500 million on 50 different projects over the next two decades.
About half of those dollars will come from the state, the rest from local
auxiliary revenue sources, donors, and bond issues.
The education of students has been foremost in the planners'
minds. "The academic programs drive the plan,"
Keller said.
That philosophy is evident in the first phase of the project. It includes:
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A new building for the School of Engineering and Applied Science, a
school that added three new majors in the past year and landed at No.
22 on the 2004 U.S. News and World Report college rankings. Situated
in the northeast part of campus, the new building will sit on the north
side of High Street, between Benton and Pearson Halls. Benton will be
renovated, connected to the new building and converted to space for the
engineering program. Cost: $35 million, including the Benton renovation. |
| A new building for the Department of Psychology, one of the top five
programs on campus in the number of credit hours it generates. Psychology
will move from its current home in Benton to a new building on the west
side of Patterson Avenue, north of Pearson Hall. This new structure will
be connected to Pearson and share a new animal care facility at ground
level between the buildings. Cost: $25 million. |
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A new ice arena.
With the existing Goggin Ice Arena bursting
at the seams (thanks to huge interest in men's
hockey, women's skating, public skate sessions,
and broomball leagues) a new arena will be
erected on Oak Street, between the Rec Center
and Phillips Hall. The existing ice arena
will be dismantled after the new one is complete,
freeing up space north of the new engineering
and psychology buildings for the creation
of an academic quadrangle design that includes
future building sites. Cost: $32 million.
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| New parking structures:
A parking garage (the first-ever on campus)
will be built behind the new ice arena, with
access from Campus Avenue. An underground
parking garage will be created at the current
site of Goggin, and then covered with grass
to provide green space in what is becoming
known as the northeast academic quad. |
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As administrators planned that first phase, they were mindful of
long-term campus needs. Miami might, for example, seek to extend
Withrow Street eastward through campus at some point, to create a
new east-west corridor.
"We needed a long-term, comprehensive approach
so as not to miss a current opportunity or negate one
for our successors," Keller said. "We don't
want to install an underground utility in an area that
might be needed as a construction site in the future."
Administrators are also mindful of reaching President
Jim Garland's "First in 2009" charge to enhance
campus facilities; of avoiding overbuilding, with ongoing
maintenance costs at $5 to $6 a square foot; of renovating
a campus full of aging buildings; of preserving buildings
with historical or traditional significance; of "deconstructing"
and reusing building materials where possible; and of
maintaining the existing look of a campus dominated
by low-rise, red-brick Georgian style buildings.
All those priorities will be in place as the initial construction phase ends
and plans for the next phase take shape. Among them are a new home
for the Richard T. Farmer School of Business and additional parking
space.
"It might seem like Miami is biting off a lot,
planning for so many new building projects during tight
financial times," Keller noted. "But that's
just the effect of putting all the priorities on paper
in one master plan," he said.
"Although the plan seems ambitious, it's not really
that much more construction activity than we would normally
have," he said. "But looking at so many years
at one time makes it appear that way."
* Information taken from Miami University's Annual
Report 2002-2003
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