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Campus projects taking shape
BY JOHN ANDREWS
Two multi-million dollar construction projects on the South Dakota State University campus are taking shape, each on target to be open to students by 2005's fall semester.
Crews are busily working to complete a $6.8 million renovation and addition project to the University Student Union, while just a couple minutes' walk away, another set of construction crews are putting together the $9.25 million Caldwell Hall, a new residence hall located just north of Young Hall on the eastern edge of campus.
A new option
Doug Wermedal, assistant dean of student affairs, said basement work and the shell of Caldwell Hall's first and second floors is complete. Crews are now pouring the deck of the facility's third floor and walls are going up in the hall's office complex. Individual room layouts are also complete with steel stud-work on the first floor.
When it's finished, Caldwell Hall will be much different than the dormitories many SDSU students of old remember. In places like Brown, Pierson or Mathews halls, rooms run opposite one another down long corridors. As many as 60 residents of one floor share a large bathroom.
Caldwell, however, will house suite-style rooms, with four students sharing a suite. A bathroom will divide it into two sleeping areas. There will be 200 square feet per sleeping area, as opposed to the 151 square feet in a traditional dorm room. The furniture will all be movable and there will be a temperature control in each room. Each floor will have a corner lounge and the hall will be equipped with an elevator.
"We were definitely after a break in the style of the facilities," Wermedal said.
That came, in part, from the results of a student survey conducted to gauge students' thoughts about what they would want in a residence hall.
"We did that survey, and we pretty much answered everything in it," Wermedal said. "Everything that they ranked in their top 10 is in this building."
There will be 150 suites in Caldwell Hall, 11 of which will be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.
"It's giving us options that we don't have now," Michael Kervin, associate director of residential life, said. "If a student contacted our disabilities services office and had special needs, right now we'd be a little pressed to house more than one or two."
Wermedal said the university is proposing a rate of $1,450 per semester for students living there. That number needs to be approved by the Board of Regents, he said.
The construction is being funded through a revenue bond, which will be paid off by student rents and fees from summer conferences housed in the building.
First Dakota Enterprises, of Pierre, is the builder, while Lightowler Johnson and Associates, of Fargo, is working the design portion. Wermedal also pointed to Les Olive, a senior engineer with physical plant, and Colin Gaalswyk, the project coordinator, as key members of the team behind the new hall.
With a capacity of 300, Caldwell Hall is named after Ada Caldwell, head of the art department from 1899 to 1937 and instructor to Harvey Dunn. The name was chosen after a series of nominations went through a committee chaired by SDSU's vice president and provost Carol Peterson.
"It took a look at the fact that as you look around campus, a lot of the facilities are named for males, so gender balance is one issue," Wermedal said. "But Dunn is recognized as essentially a key piece of South Dakota heritage. Most persons in South Dakota have heard of Harvey Dunn and his work. The fact that she (Caldwell) was indeed on our faculty was pretty compelling territory. It's a nice honor."
BY JOHN ANDREWS
Two multi-million dollar construction projects on the South Dakota State University campus are taking shape, each on target to be open to students by 2005's fall semester.
Crews are busily working to complete a $6.8 million renovation and addition project to the University Student Union, while just a couple minutes' walk away, another set of construction crews are putting together the $9.25 million Caldwell Hall, a new residence hall located just north of Young Hall on the eastern edge of campus.
A new option
Doug Wermedal, assistant dean of student affairs, said basement work and the shell of Caldwell Hall's first and second floors is complete. Crews are now pouring the deck of the facility's third floor and walls are going up in the hall's office complex. Individual room layouts are also complete with steel stud-work on the first floor.
When it's finished, Caldwell Hall will be much different than the dormitories many SDSU students of old remember. In places like Brown, Pierson or Mathews halls, rooms run opposite one another down long corridors. As many as 60 residents of one floor share a large bathroom.
Caldwell, however, will house suite-style rooms, with four students sharing a suite. A bathroom will divide it into two sleeping areas. There will be 200 square feet per sleeping area, as opposed to the 151 square feet in a traditional dorm room. The furniture will all be movable and there will be a temperature control in each room. Each floor will have a corner lounge and the hall will be equipped with an elevator.
"We were definitely after a break in the style of the facilities," Wermedal said.
That came, in part, from the results of a student survey conducted to gauge students' thoughts about what they would want in a residence hall.
"We did that survey, and we pretty much answered everything in it," Wermedal said. "Everything that they ranked in their top 10 is in this building."
There will be 150 suites in Caldwell Hall, 11 of which will be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.
"It's giving us options that we don't have now," Michael Kervin, associate director of residential life, said. "If a student contacted our disabilities services office and had special needs, right now we'd be a little pressed to house more than one or two."
Wermedal said the university is proposing a rate of $1,450 per semester for students living there. That number needs to be approved by the Board of Regents, he said.
The construction is being funded through a revenue bond, which will be paid off by student rents and fees from summer conferences housed in the building.
First Dakota Enterprises, of Pierre, is the builder, while Lightowler Johnson and Associates, of Fargo, is working the design portion. Wermedal also pointed to Les Olive, a senior engineer with physical plant, and Colin Gaalswyk, the project coordinator, as key members of the team behind the new hall.
With a capacity of 300, Caldwell Hall is named after Ada Caldwell, head of the art department from 1899 to 1937 and instructor to Harvey Dunn. The name was chosen after a series of nominations went through a committee chaired by SDSU's vice president and provost Carol Peterson.
"It took a look at the fact that as you look around campus, a lot of the facilities are named for males, so gender balance is one issue," Wermedal said. "But Dunn is recognized as essentially a key piece of South Dakota heritage. Most persons in South Dakota have heard of Harvey Dunn and his work. The fact that she (Caldwell) was indeed on our faculty was pretty compelling territory. It's a nice honor."
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