Spring Break
Students to vote on renovations
By: Matthew Dunnam
Issue date: 10/10/07 Section: News
Students may vote on the Memorial Student Center renovation and expansion referendum Wednesday and Thursday. The referendum calls for a $60 increase of the Student Center Complex Fee from $40 a semester to $100 a semester in 2008.
If the referendum passes, the Perkins + Will Architect Firm will develop construction drawings and final plans for the MSC renovation that will increase space by 106,030 square feet. The tentative project budget is $102.5 million.
With the current plan there will be 20 percent more student programming space, 36 percent more student activity space, 30 percent more meeting space, 150 percent more lounge and activity space, a covered breezeway, a café in place of the loading docks and a pedestrian mall along Joe Routt Boulevard.
"[Perkins + Will] has had 100 meetings in the past eight months to build consensus," said Jeff Stebar of Perkins + Will Architect Firm. "We did all the decision making here in the MSC ... with 300 students in the focus groups."
Stebar said the focus groups were helpful in determining what students want in the MSC; students showed that they would like more space to study, sleep, meet and relax. He said students want 24-hour access to the MSC every day, open computer access, outdoor views and connectivity between the upstairs and downstairs.
The MSC has asbestos, the ceiling is falling down, the foundation is cracked and there is not enough room for organizations in the building, said Will Hotze, a junior finance major and chairman of the MSC Advisory Council.
"Students here are smart. Our programs are the best in the country, and we are using a substandard facility," said MSC President Jonathon Glueck, a senior agricultural leadership and agricultural economics double-major. "We need a building that embodies the diversity of campus and that bridges the gap between tradition and tomorrow."
There will be construction done on the MSC to bring it up to fire code and make it American with Disabilities Act, ADA, compliant even if the referendum does not pass.
"If we pass this referendum or not, we are going to have construction here. We will have to have roughly $30 million worth of construction to bring us up to code," Hotze said. "That money will have to come from somewhere. [If the renovation referendum does not pass], there could be a loss of student services, and we may have to start paying to use rooms in the MSC."
Jeff Stebar of Perkins + Will Architect Firm said the project will take about 14 months for the design work. Construction will be done in two main phases each taking 17 months to complete. The MSC should be completed four years after the referendum is approved.
If the referendum passes, the Perkins + Will Architect Firm will develop construction drawings and final plans for the MSC renovation that will increase space by 106,030 square feet. The tentative project budget is $102.5 million.
With the current plan there will be 20 percent more student programming space, 36 percent more student activity space, 30 percent more meeting space, 150 percent more lounge and activity space, a covered breezeway, a café in place of the loading docks and a pedestrian mall along Joe Routt Boulevard.
"[Perkins + Will] has had 100 meetings in the past eight months to build consensus," said Jeff Stebar of Perkins + Will Architect Firm. "We did all the decision making here in the MSC ... with 300 students in the focus groups."
Stebar said the focus groups were helpful in determining what students want in the MSC; students showed that they would like more space to study, sleep, meet and relax. He said students want 24-hour access to the MSC every day, open computer access, outdoor views and connectivity between the upstairs and downstairs.
The MSC has asbestos, the ceiling is falling down, the foundation is cracked and there is not enough room for organizations in the building, said Will Hotze, a junior finance major and chairman of the MSC Advisory Council.
"Students here are smart. Our programs are the best in the country, and we are using a substandard facility," said MSC President Jonathon Glueck, a senior agricultural leadership and agricultural economics double-major. "We need a building that embodies the diversity of campus and that bridges the gap between tradition and tomorrow."
There will be construction done on the MSC to bring it up to fire code and make it American with Disabilities Act, ADA, compliant even if the referendum does not pass.
"If we pass this referendum or not, we are going to have construction here. We will have to have roughly $30 million worth of construction to bring us up to code," Hotze said. "That money will have to come from somewhere. [If the renovation referendum does not pass], there could be a loss of student services, and we may have to start paying to use rooms in the MSC."
Jeff Stebar of Perkins + Will Architect Firm said the project will take about 14 months for the design work. Construction will be done in two main phases each taking 17 months to complete. The MSC should be completed four years after the referendum is approved.
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