Collegio Online

Issue date: 6/14/07 Section: Front Page

Media Credit: Tonya Tomory/Collegio Don Graziose, employee of A. Lusker Masonry, works to help complete the new PSU recreation center.

When August rolls around, there will be many new faces, but there will be some new places as well.
Students might have noticed the health-awareness posters throughout campus, but Pitt State has taken that goal one step further.
Construction on a $15 million recreation center is under way on South Rouse, between the Veterans Memorial Amphitheater and the softball fields.
When construction is complete, scheduled for spring 2008, the recreation center will also serve as a readiness center for the Kansas Army National Guard, complete with classrooms, a kitchen, gym, locker and shower rooms for PSU students and members of the National Guard.
On the PSU side of the building, there will be additional classrooms, offices for the Health, Human Performance and Recreation Department and Military Science Department, along with the student recreation center.
According to Paul Stewart, director of Facilities Planning, the center, with 99,000 square feet, will consist of three full-sized gyms, with a fourth belonging to the military wing, a fitness center complete with exercise equipment, an aerobics room, a running/walking track, student locker room, and a separate faculty/staff locker room.
"This project is a joint venture between PSU and the Kansas Army National Guard," Stewart said. "It is being funded from many different sources between both agencies."
Elsewhere on campus, while some buildings are being started from scratch, many are undergoing remodeling.
Grubbs Hall will undergo major renovations to lecture halls 107 and 109. The work will consist of replacing the current seating, ceiling and lights. Additional work will entail installing carpet, repainting the lecture halls, and swapping out old doors for new ones. The project will be performed during the summer, in time for the fall semester.
Heckert-Wells, which holds science classes, will get a new roof, and the Overman Student Center will have some of its roofing replaced.
Work on a plaza area at the main entrance of Gibson Dining Hall is out for bids.
"The existing Willard Plaza will be extended to run along the entire east side of Gibson Dining Hall," said Stewart. "The Gibson plaza will include lighting, new landscaping and fencing as well."
When the project is completed, before the start of classes in August, the existing handicap ramp will be resurfaced and handrails replaced. The entrances to Gibson and Dellinger halls will also get new lights.
Finally, the Kansas Polymer Research Center is being built just south of the baseball fields on Research Road. Once completed, it will replace the space the center staff uses in Shirk Hall.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools