If You Build It
While Centennial Village is rising on the west side of campus, other changes to the campus landscape are either in progress or in the planning stages for Angelo State.
In all ASU’s Facilities Planning and Construction Office is working on some 60 individual projects, ranging from planning to renovations and from construction to demolition.
Centennial Village
Thanks to a seven-days-a-week work schedule, Centennial Village is on schedule and close to being ahead of schedule, according to John Russell, director of facilities planning and construction. The $22 million, 526-bed residence hall is targeted to open this fall.
Framing is going up on the south end of the project while concrete is being poured on the west side of the site along Jade Street. The final sections of the foundation – the north end along Avenue N and the common building in the middle of the site – will be completed by the end of the month.
Russell said the project is on target for 478 beds to be available in the primary building around Aug. 1. The remaining 48 beds, lobby and meeting areas in the common building are expected to be available by Nov. 1.
Signage Project
The final phase of the $550,000 ASU signage project is scheduled to be completed by the end of March when major monument signage will delineate the campus perimeter.
The large monument signs will come in two styles. At major entrances to campus, the signs will feature a 32-foot long, 3-foot high limestone base supporting a 30-foot high blue aluminum panel with “ASU” in white at the top. The base will have “Angelo State University” in 11-inch high bronze letters.
At secondary entrances, a 20-foot-long limestone base with the university name will support the four-foot-high letters “ASU” in blue and bronze.
Previously, parking lot and vehicular wayfinding signs, pedestrian directional signs, pedestrian map boards, and major building display signs were installed.
Reidy Building
The ASU Police Department moved the first week in January into the Reidy Building on the northwest corner of the intersection of Avenue N and Jackson Street. The parking canopy in front of the previous police building will be moved next week to the west side of the Reidy Building.
Additionally, the offices of the Controller and Accounts Payable, including Travel, will move to the Reidy Building in mid-January. Tentative dates for the move are Jan. 17-18. During the move there will be times when the departments do not have telephone service. Goal is for the offices to be operational by Jan. 22.
Communications and Marketing
The Continuing Studies Building is being renovated for the Office of Communications and Marketing. The renovated building is expected to be completed in early February. It will include work spaces for writers and designers as well as a combination meeting room and photo studio.
Communications and Marketing will move into the new quarters in early to mid February.
Demolition
The previous police station is scheduled for demolition by the end of the month. Asbestos abatement has been completed for both the former police station and Runnels Hall, which is scheduled for demolition to begin during the week of Jan. 7.
Asbestos abatement was winding up the week of Jan. 7 on Mayer Hall with demolition set to begin the week of Jan. 14 on that former residence hall.
Those demolition projects are small compared to the removal of University Hall, the southern-most high rise. The university will go to the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents in March to seek authorization to hire abatement and demolition contractors as well as an architect to draw plans for the new residence hall to replace the 10-story building. The university hopes to begin abatement in the early summer and follow with the demolition of the building.
Traffic Study
The university and the City of San Angelo have joined together to conduct a traffic study of campus and the surrounding neighborhoods to determine options related to ASU’s desire to close Johnson Street through the center of campus and Rosemont on the west side of campus.
Preliminary work has begun on the study with traffic counts being provided by the city at the direction of Walker Parking Consultants, a national parking and traffic consultant based in Houston. The week of Jan. 21 the consultants will begin a series of movement studies, tracking the actions of vehicles at 18 major intersections in the neighborhood and on campus.
Completion of the study is anticipated around the first of March. Results will then be jointly announced by the university and the city.
Hardeman Building
The university is finalizing an agreement with architectural firm Good, Fulton and Farrell of Dallas for schematic designs for the renovation and expansion of the Hardeman Building into a one-stop center for most student services, including Admissions, Registrar, Financial Aid, Residence Life, Student Bursar, OneCard and Graduate Studies as well as facilities for a new Center for International and Multicultural Studies.
By the end of September the architect should have final plans ready for the renovation. Construction is scheduled to begin by the end of November. During the construction, displaced offices will be housed in temporary facilities which will be located in the area where the police station and Mayer and Runnels Halls are being demolished.
Center for Human Performance
With the passage of a student referendum for increased fees to pay for a student recreation center, plans are in progress to expand the Center for Human Performance (CHP). The programming phase of the project will be completed later in January. Once that is done the project will enter the design phase with the preliminary design completed this spring. The student recreation center is projected to be completed in the summer of 2010.
