HUNTINGTON -- The face of the River City is changing rapidly.
Those who regularly travel down Third or Fifth avenues between Hal Greer Boulevard and 20th Street in Huntington can see those changes from day to day. And soon, Marshall University buildings will line both sides of both avenues in that part of town, said Bill Bissett, chief of staff and senior vice president of communications.
"It's going up fast," he said. "It's really amazing how well it's going."
At this time, the university has more than $100 million in construction projects under way, said Ronald May, manager of projects and operations.
Student Recreation Center
One of the largest, and perhaps most anticipated, of those construction projects is the new Student Recreation Center, Bissett said. The center is located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 20th Street, on the site of the former 20th Street Baptist Church.
The university purchased the church for $1 million in October 2006. Construction on the 123,000-square-foot center started in the summer of 2007. The project was plagued by delays, mostly involving the weather. The completion date now is set for the spring of 2009.
"We're a month or more behind," May said. "We're really picking it up now. The contractor is working overtime. We're about back where we need to be."
Mascaro Construction Co. LP, the general contractor for the project, has been working 10-hour shifts to get the project back on schedule, May said.
The three-story center will have a gymnasium, fitness center, pool, locker rooms and lobby on the first floor. The second floor will have a second gym and group exercise rooms. The third floor will have more group exercise rooms and a jogging track that will run around the perimeter of the building.
On the outside of the building -- at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 20th Street -- students will have a climbing wall, which will extend to the third floor, Bissett said.
New Residence Halls
Just to the west of the recreation center, two new dormitories are under way. Together, they will house more than 800 freshmen beginning this fall, May said.
"They'll have two (students) per room," he said. "... We're 20 or 30 days ahead of schedule on the residence halls."
The new dorms will be controlled-access and will be equipped with 84 security cameras, May said.
"They'll be card-accessed," he said. "There will be a person at the desk 24 hours a day."
The ground floor of each L-shaped dorm building will have a student activity lounge, a laundry room, a theater and a conference room, May said. The buildings also will have several classrooms.
Students will live in two-person suites, and have individual bedrooms. Each suite will have a shared bathroom. Each suite will have wireless Internet access.
The new residence halls also will have apartments for visiting faculty, May said.
The shape of the buildings makes them stronger, he said. They are capable of withstanding 90 mph wind gusts.
"They are built above code," May said.
In addition to the modern amenities, the residence halls have some features designed to help keep students healthier, he said. The buildings have a fresh air exchange system and carbon dioxide monitoring system.
"You normally don't have that in a building like this," May said. "It's a healthier building."
Just to the west of the residence halls, the university will construct new tennis courts to replace the old ones that were removed for the construction projects. The project also includes a new band practice field just north of the Student Recreation Center.
"There will be a lot of green space around (the residence halls)," May said.
Engineering Lab
On the other side of 3rd Avenue, construction crews are busy building a state-of-the-art laboratory for the university's new College of Information Technology and Engineering. The lab sits across Third Avenue from Smith Hall on what used to be parking lot F.
That $3.5 million project started in the fall of 2007 and is scheduled to open this fall. The 16,000-square-foot building will house a high-tech engineering visualization lab and other lab space, faculty offices and student common areas, said Betsy Dulin, incoming dean of the college.
"They have a very aggressive schedule," she said. "... We hope to have it open by the fall."
The lab is an important part of the college's efforts to accredit its revived Bachelor of Science in Engineering program, Dulin said.
Changing Campus
One project that has not yet started is construction of a new building to house the Erickson Alumni Center and the Marshall University Foundation, Bissett said.
"We expect to break ground soon," he said.
The three-story building will have more than 38,000 square feet of space. It will be located on what is now a vacant lot along Fifth Avenue.
Another project set to start soon is a four-story addition to the Forensic Science Center. That addition will have 16,000 square feet of space consisting of labs, classrooms and offices.
The second floor of the addition will house a biotech incubator. Sen. Robert C. Byrd secured funding for that project.
Renovations also are under way on the first floor of the Fred and Christine Shewey Athletic Building, Bissett said.
And some projects already have been completed recently, such as the new women's softball field and renovations to the Memorial Student Center.
Both the new construction and renovations are designed to attract new students to campus, Bissett said. That is particularly true of the Student Recreation Center and the new residence halls.
"The market research we've done says that this is what today's students want," he said. "If we're going to increase enrollment, we have to listen to (potential students)."
And the changes are likely to keep coming, Bissett said. Once the recreation center and residence halls are complete, one of the next steps is the demolition of Hodges Hall, which was built in the 1930s and is one of the oldest on campus.
Once Hodges is gone, the campus will have a line of sight from the Drinko Library on the western end of campus, all the way to Joan C. Edwards Stadium on the eastern end.
