Campus Construction Impact

High expectationsare building forupcoming projectsErin FoxNews EditorNovember 16, 2017A forum was held last month in the Williman Room to inform university members of the 2018 construction schedule and potential impacts it will create on campus.The Oct. 26 event was hosted by Robin Reynolds, Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services and Marissa Pimentel, a Project Engineer for Planning & Projects.Reynolds provided an update on the food service impact regarding the summer of 2018 construction, particularly the Benson Bronco patio enclosure and remodel.The first phase ultimately allows for seating 200 more people. Starting in February, the outdoor space between the bookstore and The Bronco will be enclosed and covered with a barreled roof. The added seating is intended to accommodate the extra bodies on campus as the university aims to increase the undergraduate enrollment to 6,000 students by the year 2020. The current name for this project is the “Bronco Atrium.”Reynolds said she was “not a fan” of taking The Bronco offline in mid-May, despite a tight construction time window. She noted that The Bronco is such a small part of the construction project that it would not be worth causing its closure before the school year officially ended.“We don’t really have a choice,” Reynolds said regarding the need to open The Bronco the weekend before the first day of class. She noted that the possibility of The Bronco serving alcohol to those of age was not included in the resign plans.When it comes to food service impacts, Mission Bakery, Marketplace, the Bronco and the Cellar Market will be closed early June to mid-September. The alternative eateries are campus cafes, whereas faculty and staff can also indulge at the Adobe Lodge. According to Reynolds, they are currently exploring options to increase cafe hours and increase the food variety options.Food service for summer conferences, orientation and camps will be prepared in Benson kitchens and served in satellite locations, such as The Williman Room, Parlors A-C and the adjacent patio. There is also the Nobili Dining Room, Shapell Lounge and Alumni Park. The Conference Services will try to house conferences, camps and other organizations in residence buildings away from construction in order to minimize noise exposure and walkway obstructions.Loading docks outside of Benson are also being redone in order to get trucks off of Market Street. Due to this, a lane will be closed and traffic will to go one-way, forcing cars to turn down Alviso Street as an alternative.“Some accommodations will probably be made for move out,” Pimentel said.Pimental covered the remaining upcoming projects, including the South Campus Residence Hall, the Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation, as well as five additional projects related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).The South Campus Residence Hall is another project that will begin construction in the next year, the ninth Residential Learning Community at Santa Clara. This residence hall will be formally named in the next six months. The hall will host 366 beds for firstyears and sophomores in a “mini-suite” style, similar to Graham Residence Hall.It will mainly take up the parking lot behind Sobrato Residence Hall. To account for this, a new parking garage will be built underneath this new residence hall.The estimated timeline is for construction to begin in January 2018 and end in August 2019, in time for the newest crop of incoming students.Construction for the Sobrato complex will begin in October of next year and conclude in September 2021. This project will create the most significant impacts, as there will be construction traffic and fencing affecting the on-campus circulation.The Sobrato campus is contingent on other current campus projects, starting with the move out of the school of engineering into other buildings.This complex will displace STEM students to various locations on campus. This STEM building will go in place of the four main engineering buildings: Bannan Hall, Bannan Engineering, Bannan Engineering Laboratories and Murphy Hall.STEM classes normally operating out of those four main engineering buildings will be moved to HeafeyBergin, Alameda Hall, St. Clare Commons, Daly Science 200 and the garage.Heafey-Bergin is to be renovated before it can be reused for STEM classes. Bergin Hall is a registered historical building, so there are some architectural features that cannot be changed.Although Heafey Law Library is not historic, the two buildings are connected and will continue to remain as such.The construction is set to begin in March 2018, after the Law School moves into the new Charney Hall, and will conclude in the following September. The sidewalks will be kept open during the remainder of the school year.“It’s very in the middle of campus, so getting construction deliveries in will be challenging,” Pimentel said. “We’re still working on how that’s going to look and feel.”Alameda Hall was remodeled in 2016 and opened after the Dowd Art Building was unveiled. The hall will provide six additional classrooms on campus, specifically for civil engineers.The St. Clare commons are graduate dorms with some event and lounge areas that will be converted into temporary space for a mechanical engineering classroom and space for research projects.The Garage is an old property that has been leased out to automotive and landscaping companies in the past. Interior cleanup will take place to convert the building into new lab space for undergraduate STEM students.Construction on Daly 200 will not start until the summer, but will receive interior improvements and a utility upgrade to become the Center for Nanostructures.Contact Erin Fox at efox@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.