Asa Fix
News Reporter

As two big construction projects on campus come to an end, two more are in the beginning stages. The Board of Trustees gave preliminary approval to build a new residence hall as well as expand and renovate Houston Hall.
A Mesa State College (MSC) student housing market analysis showed that the college is in dire need of more beds because of increased enrollment.
The new residence hall will consist of anywhere from 272 to 328 beds. It’s expected to be five stories tall and have similar layouts to Grand Mesa and North Avenue residence halls. It will be located on Bunting Ave. in the area between the two already existing halls. The landscape will also be similar to the open area in front of Grand Mesa and the Fine Arts building.
“We are looking at singles and doubles in the suite style atmosphere,” said Chip Thomas, director of Housing and Residence Life. “There won’t be as many beds in a room like a suite but each room will have three or four (beds).”
The new hall is to be completed by the fall of 2011 and it will pay for itself through room and board fees.
According to Thomas, the new residence hall has the ability to add a wing on to it in the future if more beds are needed.
Another solution to future growth, according to President Tim Foster, is another hall could be built on Cannell Ave. depending on how fast the new residence hall fills up. The second hall would be completed by the fall of 2012, if needed.
The second project to hit MSC is the renovation and expansion of Houston Hall. Houston was the first building on the MSC campus. Built in the 1940s, it is the primary building for undergraduate lower division students as well as many general education classes. According to Dana Nunn, director of media relations, the Board of Trustees thought it was very important to renovate the interior of HoustProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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Hall to help students succeed.
The renovation would include taking the interior structure down and reconstructing it to provide a modern collProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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iate classroom building. Other additions would include a common area, a café, an indoor/outdoor patiProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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as well as 21 additional classrooms, 13 break ouProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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rooms, three labs, and additional faculty offices. The eProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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ansion will be added onto the north of the building where the current courtyard is located, and will essentially make it a square building.
“The plan is to restore the exterior of the building and to maintain that iconic look that it has. It is very much symbolic of the college as a whole,” Nunn said.
Right now there are 40 architects bidding on the renovation of Houston Hall according to Foster. “It shows that it’s a great time to be building,” Foster said.
The renovation is estimated to cost $15 million and will be paid for by bonds and a possible five to seven percent increase in student tuition.
“The two most recent construction problems that were finished was of course the popular Maverick Center and the new parking garage,” Nunn said.
The parking garage opened on Jan. 19 and has 273 parking spaces and over half of them are for commuters.
The two construction projects that are still being worked on are the student center and the Wuben Hall extension. The $25 million student center is projected to be finished next November and the $18.4 million Wuben Hall extension should be finished by the start of next semester.
u
ajfix@mesastate.edu