Summer a hot time for campus construction

Maintaining and upgrading UD’s campus is an ongoing enterprise that moves into high gear during the summer months. With fewer students on campus and warmer weather, summer time is construction time as new building, renovations and restructuring take place to improve and maintain the campus infrastructure.

Here are some recent projects.

• An Enrollment Services Building is being erected at the former site of the Visitors Center parking lot to house admissions, financial aid and the registrar's office. The building will include two separate areas. The one-and-a-half story public area at the front will feature a main lobby, presentation room and interview rooms and will serve as the new Admissions Visitors Center. Prospective students can enter the lobby, move to the presentation room, where admissions staff will greet them and familiarize them with the University and the application process, and then can exit for campus tours by Blue Hen Ambassadors. The back section will house the offices and functions of the three divisions.
  
  
• Construction of a new 600-bed residence hall is under way on the Laird Campus. This fourth new residence hall, which is scheduled for occupancy in 2008, will house 600 beds, a 4,000-square-foot fitness center and recreational artificial turf that will be installed between the new building and Pencader Dining Hall.
  
  
• The Russell Hall Complex is undergoing extensive renovations. Underground utilities and electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems are being replaced throughout the complex, and new bathrooms will be installed. Ceilings, doors and windows are being replaced and interiors refinished. Exterior improvements include new trash enclosures, exterior stairs and retaining walls and miscellaneous landscaping. Russell A and B will be closed until spring 2008, and D and E will be closed in June 2008 with work scheduled for completion by spring 2009.
  
  
• In Kirkbride Hall, all seven classrooms will be renovated over a two-year period. The improvements include auditorium seating, improved access for those with disabilities in each classroom, new floor and wall finishes and audio/visual upgrades. Three rooms were renovated during the summer, a fourth renovation is planned for Winter Session, and the remaining three are scheduled for next summer.
  
  
• Conover Hall East has undergone replacement of all domestic water piping and water heaters, installation of water-saving plumbing fixtures and other renovations. The same work will be done next summer in Conover West. In addition, all windows will be replaced in both building.