Several weeks after the bulk of students left campus, MSU has begun work on dorms and buildings on and off campus. Both MSU and the city of East Lansing also are working on roads during the summer months.

From May to the beginning of the fall semester, the area in and around the university is a city of orange barrels.

Dorm revamps

The largest ongoing dorm construction project on campus is the $49 million renovations to Brody Hall, which began last summer and are expected to be complete by fall semester 2011, Zelt said.

However, the dining room on the second floor of Brody Hall – which will be called Brody Square — is expected to be substantially complete by July and open for student dining for the fall semester.

“It will be nothing that you have seen anywhere in mid-Michigan” Vennie Gore, assistant vice president of Housing Food Services, said of Brody Square.

Also in the Brody Complex, Emmons Hall will be closed for the 2010-11 school year as it becomes the first of the complex’s six dorms to be refurbished. The updates will cost about $15 million.

Emmons will have mechanical and electrical work done, as well as a makeover to the reception desk, elevators and laundry facilities. A community kitchen also will be installed.

New windows will be installed and the balconies will be removed. Individual dorm rooms will receive pre-lofted beds. Similar to the Mary Mayo Hall renovation, Emmons Hall’s bathrooms will be fully gutted and receive new sinks, toilets and showers.

Emmons Hall is set to open for the fall semester 2011.

Hubbard Hall also is receiving a makeover similar to recent updates to Holden and Owens halls. In addition to new paint, carpet and normal maintenance, Hubbard Hall will be the first hall to receive an engagement center, meant to bring various student services, such as academic advisers, closer to the areas where students live. The update will cost about $4 million.

The engagement center is a part of the Neighborhood Concept, which the university plans to implement in all neighborhoods by August 2012.

Expanding academics

Construction is not limited to the dorms and has started on other campus buildings.

Work has begun to connect the Plant Biology Laboratories and the Plant and Soil Sciences Building. The addition, totaling 74,000 square feet and costing about $43 million, will contain offices, laboratories, and lab support space, which will contain equipment lab technicians regularly use, such as centrifuges or refrigerators.

“The Plant (and Soil) Sciences Building lacked sufficient space to do the kind of research that they wanted to do,” said University engineer Robert Nestle. “There wasn’t any way to do remolding, it just required additional space.”

Construction on the expansion is expected to be substantially completed by the end of October 2011.
Utilities, such as chilled water, natural gas, sanitary and storm sewers, domestic water and electrical as well as communication lines must be moved for the addition. Because the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, which is scheduled to begin construction in 2013, is in the area of the addition, utility work for FRIB will take place in conjunction with the utility work for the addition, Nestle said.

The intersection of Wilson Road and Bogue Street has been closed since May 10 and will remain closed until June 10 because of FRIB construction and the Plant and Soil Sciences expansion. One of Wilson Road’s eastbound lanes also will be closed for the next year, although it is expected to open for major events such as football games.

Construction of culture

The forthcoming Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum had its ground-breaking ceremony in March and work on the museum is scheduled to be substantially complete in April 2012.

The construction has closed the Berkey Hall parking lot and the section of East Circle Drive from Farm Lane to just west of the Student Services parking lot until August 2011.

The sidewalk between campus’ Collingwood Street entrance from Grand River Avenue to Berkey Hall also will be closed starting in August 2011.

One lane of Grand River Avenue also is closed until the end of May because of museum construction.
MSU officials this summer also will propose to demolish the century-old Morrill Hall to the MSU Board of Trustees at its June 18 meeting, Zelt said.

Classrooms and offices currently housed in the hall will move to an addition to the B-wing of Wells Hall if construction is approved.

In June, the MSU Board of Trustees will vote whether to move ahead on the project.

City projects

The city of East Lansing also is doing work on Harrison Road from Kalamazoo Street to Trowbridge Road, said Ron Lacasse, senior engineer for the city.

Construction on Harrison will be completed in two summers. This summer will focus on the half of Harrison road between Kalamazoo Street and Shaw Lane.

The construction, which will last from early June to late August, will condense traffic into one lane in each direction, Lacasse said.

Although there are large-scale projects and multiple road closures across campus, civil engineering senior Kristy Currier said the construction does not pose any major inconvenience.

“I haven’t really noticed it,” Currier said. “Grand River went down to one lane, I just avoid it during rush hour. I would rather see construction going on during the summer than the school year.”