ISU update

[jaretac]

I thought some of you, who live far away from Ames, would like an update on what is happening around campus.

First, there were some concerns about the Athletic dept. turning Hilton into a gymnasium. I've been told that the Athletic dept has no such intentions. In fact, the Athletic dept is handling the Styx concert for Ragbrai and they are in the process of booking their first concert for the inside of Hilton. I've also heard that the Athletic dept is moving their ticket office to the Hilton ticket office and that the Osborn tix office will only be open on game days.

Jack Trice is moving right along. They have repaved most of the concourse and appear to be nearing completion.

The new Alumni Center, which has been interfearing with some of our tailgating over the past 2 years, is almost completed and should be done by the start of football. In fact, the Alumni Association has already started moving into the building. Because of the construction of the Alumni Center, Alumni Hall will be renamed to Enrollment Services Center.

ISU has installed a new warning system through out campus. There are five: one at Beyer, Forker, UV, VetMed, and Jack Trice. Should come in handy next time our mascot shows up at a game.

Industrial Education 1 has now been torn down and they are preparing the site for the construction of Hach Hall. Pammel Drive is closed between Gilman and the Armory, but is supposed be reopened by the start of school.

Vet Med has added on a huge addition. Except for some minor work here and there, Vet Med is practically done and they are planing on having it open this August. We had one of the best VetMed colleges in nation before- just imagine.

Other construction projects.
The Hub has been undergoing some major rebuilding and should be completed by this fall semester. When completed, it should have more food options and bathrooms. The Seed Science addition is almost completed and is already open. The Coover addition is completed. The Design Pavilion is moving right along, but has a long way to go. The Marching Band field (you may know it as the place where they had Veishea this year) has been moved north of the Armory in preparation for a new bio-renewable building between Design and Howe.

 

[TheHelgo]

cool - thanks for the update

 

[HandSanitizer]

Great Info...
So getting back to the concert thing...Do concerts help the Athletic budget? Or does that money even go to that? I guess the time you have staff etc...it might be a wash? I was wondering if they could grow the budge by 1% by having a couple concerts. Who knows.
Good to hear about the vet school.

 

[jaretac]

I don't think the Athletic dept even knows how the concerts are going to help/hurt. SMG has not be forthcoming with information to help the Athletic dept get settled and the overall transition has not been well managed. Give you an example, the pay schedules that the Athletic dept has put together for part time employees is way off. With the current pay schedules, traffic attendants will make as much as $2/hour less then minimum wage. This is obviously a mistake, but it shows how out of touch they are. I will say one thing about the Athletic dept, they have a vision of what they what to see happen at Hilton and I don't think anything will stop them from trying to improve things at Hilton.

 

[CyInSoonerland]

Thanks for the update. We recently drove through Ames on our way from Cedar Rapids to Bellevue, NE and we were amazed at the changes. For us, the new stuff around the engineering building, Sweeney, and Friley Hall is all new. We were also wondering about the building going up in the athletic area and now I assume that's the Alumni Center.

 

[cytech]

In terms of budget I would think that the AD taking over hilton should up raise it a bit. Not saying that there will be additional profit to be had but the overall budget will increase because of it.

 

[ornryactor]

There are five ISUAlert towers: at Beyer, Forker, Vet Med, Jack Trice, and SUV.

Just a quick note about the Hub: when it's done, we'll have a full-size Caribou Coffee there. It's going to be the first franchise on a college campus owned and operated by the university. (Kansas State opened a shop in this past fall, but KSU doesn't own or run it.) They'll also have the sandwich shop that has been there for a while now, and a full grill inside. (Remember the huge portable grill they used to have sit outside during warm months, but had to be gone in the winter? Now when it gets cold, they can keep grilling inside.)

Construction has been a HUGE mess: it was supposed to be open in February, then the contract with Starbucks fell through, then it was supposed to be open in May, then July, and now it's mid-August, which looks like it will actually happen.

 

[sunset]

Thanks for the updates. I'm going to be in Des Moines next week and might have to try to make it up to Ames to see all the changes!

 

[dustinal]

...Just a quick note about the Hub: when it's done, we'll have a full-size Caribou Coffee there...

I LOVE Caribou Coffee and was happy when I heard about this--except for the fact that I'm never on campus. And it doesn't help that you can't really drive to the Hub because the only way in is via Osborne which is blocked off on weekdays. And even if you could drive there, there's no place to park. They need to open a Caribou somewhere else in Ames. I'd go there at least once or twice a week. Better than crappy Starbucks.

 

[jaretac]

I LOVE Caribou Coffee and was happy when I heard about this--except for the fact that I'm never on campus. And it doesn't help that you can't really drive to the Hub because the only way in is via Osborne which is blocked off on weekdays. And even if you could drive there, there's no place to park. They need to open a Caribou somewhere else in Ames. I'd go there at least once or twice a week. Better than crappy Starbucks.

During the summer Osborne is open 24/7. They don't even have the gates out.

 

[zumbro clones]

Thanks a lot for the info. Those of us who live over 3 hours away like to hear the news.

 

[natedog]

Another project that is just starting is the renovation and addition to the maple-willow-larch commons dinning center. This will bring more of a food court dining experience, similar to the UDCC. Once it is done students wont have to go across campus to UDCC to have better food options.

 

[jaretac]

I also forgot to mention the Snedecor hall renovations. The Statistical department has moved down to Wilson hall (part of Towers) while Snedecor is being renovated. They are completely tearing everything out of the inside and rebuilding. Not supposed to be completed until fall of 2009.

 

[ornryactor]

Another project that is just starting is the renovation and addition to the maple-willow-larch commons dinning center. This will bring more of a food court dining experience, similar to the UDCC. Once it is done students wont have to go across campus to UDCC to have better food options.

Yeah, this is huge. MWL dining closed in May, will remain closed for construction through all of the coming school year, and will reopen in August 2009. The ground-level dining hall will be gutted and completely redone from the ground up, and the upper levels of the Commons will receive some modifications as well. The biggest change there will be the construction of a much larger C-store, to be called the East Side Market. (The West Side Market already exists in the UDCC.) The dining hall will be called The Seasons; it'll have a vague naturey, tree-like feel inside. It's pretty nice. A few major differences from the UDM will be custom-smoked meats, hard-packed ice cream from an as-yet-secret Iowa company, and a rotating international menu (as opposed to the UDM's daily staple of "Chinese" food, tacos, and made-to-order quesadillas).

While MWL is closed, Linden's dining hall will be open, and Oak-Elm will remain open as normal. (Linden will be weekday service, and OE moves to 7-day.) Once MWL reopens, Linden will stay open, and OE will close for the 2009-2010 school year for its own massive renovation. They're putting in a big in-house bakery and huge dessert shoppe area, among other things, but retaining the style and atmosphere of the hall, since students like it so well. (The long tables aren't getting replaced with lots of small tables, like in UDM and MWL.) When it reopens in August 2010, Linden will presumably close again. (However, if enrollment at ISU keeps skyrocketing the way it has been, they may well decide to keep Linden open.)

Helser and Oak-Elm are getting totally remodeled this summer, and the northern third of Friley is getting brand-new flooring. Friley is also in the first phase of adding fire safety systems; that project will take until 2011 to complete (heat/smoke/CO detection, sprinkler system, building-wide intercom).

 

[scyclonekid]

The Alumni building looks great!! Very classy facility. I helped put the furniture in the building and helped install all the cubicals. I am pretty sure that they were going to move in sometime this week if next week.

 

[besserheimerphat]

scyclonekid - do you work for Central Stores? I worked there from '99 - '04. That managed to be both a cool and crappy job all at the same time. The work sucked, but we got access to some cool places. Plus we got to drive on the sidewalks.

 

[ornryactor]

Oh, another thing: they're completely replacing the exterior staircase on Curtiss Hall. The old steps were the originals, and were so badly grooved that going down them had actually become dangerous. People were slipping and falling and such. Since the university doesn't like people with broken skulls suing them, they hired a mastor stoneworker (or mason or whatever they're called) to oversee replacement. The new steps will be absolutely identical to the originals, so no worries there. I never would have guess how huge a job it is, though- it's taking all summer, and they're also replacing the entire supporting structure beneath the steps.

What else? The ground floor and south exterior stairs of Carver got a big renovation last fall. The Hixon-Lied Academic Success Center opened up last year, as well, right across from MWL (where the Wallace Rd. Office Building used to be). Once the Alumni Association finishes moving out, Fisher-Nickell House will be demolished this month. Though nothing has been announced, it's a sure thing that Andrews-Richards House is going to go sooner or later. (Currently used by Human Development/Family Studies.)

 

[jaretac]

The ground floor and south exterior stairs of Carver got a big renovation last fall.

That think that was 2+ years ago. I know it was before I started working for the university in '06.

Though nothing has been announced, it's a sure thing that Andrews-Richards House is going to go sooner or later. (Currently used by Human Development/Family Studies.)

That would be awesome if it happens, but I would not expect to see that happen for at least 2+ years. There is no other place for them to move to.

One of the biggest projects last year was the Curtiss Auditorium renovation. I had some classes in there my freshmen year, why couldn't they have remodeled it earlier?

 

[bmuff]

I'll add a few more updates:

The new Alumni Center will be home to ISU AA tailgates for every home FB game. They may even have live music. Also, they will now be renting out the facility for weddings, etc. There's supposed to be a large ballroom and it even has Cy's Pub and Parlor inside. It will also be a meeting place for alumni to park, meet and shuttle to campus. Should be a nice gameday and year round addition.

The Memorial Union addition/renovation is pretty much complete. For those of you who don't know, they've remodeled multiple rooms including the Great Hall and moved the welcome desk. Most people would not recognize the University Book Store now. It occupies the top floor of the new addition and has tons more room. There is a new convenience store right across from the entrance now. The bottom floor is going to house an ISU welcome center that is just now under construction.

Morrill Hall has been completely renovated...finished a year or so ago. Very nice inside.

The Hub IMO has nearly doubled in size.

The first part of the Biorenewables Complex (the Biorenewables Lab?) should start construction this fall. The other two parts down the line are the Ag/Biosystems Engineering Building (Elings Hall) and a parking structure.

There's a feasibility study underway to look at renovating Curtis.

 

[jaretac]

I'll add a few more updates:
The other two parts down the line are the Ag/Biosystems Engineering Building (Elings Hall) and a parking structure.

The parking ramp still hasn't received funding, nor has it been planned. Building the west ramp is also contingent on future development on west campus; however, with the Design Pavilion, the bio renewable building, and the new recreation building (which will eat up resident parking lots), it's only a matter of time before it gets built.