WFU Begins New Construction Program

“As you can see, the next three to four years are going to be a busy time for us here at Wake Forest,” said Bill Sides, director of facilities management. Wake Forest’s board of trustees approved the new construction program in a meeting last April.

The 72,000-square-foot residence hall on the northern edge of the Wake Forest campus represents a new class of student housing on the nation’s campuses. Designed to accommodate 194 students, the building will offer townhouse-style living. Each townhouse unit will have its own kitchen, great room and four private bedrooms. In addition, the building will offer studio apartments. The residence hall project also calls for construction of a new parking lot and an access road. Sides said that the university will solicit bids for the project in January, with plans to complete the residence hall in time for the start of the 1998 fall semester.

Another north campus project is the renovation of Student Apartments. The complex will get new heating and air conditioning, new kitchens, landscaping and other exterior and interior improvements.

The single largest project among the new construction is an 80,000-square-foot classroom building. It will be built between two classroom buildings — Carswell and Calloway Halls — along Magnolia Court . The new building will house the psychology and language departments, with room for expanded course offerings. It is expected to be completed by the fall of 1999.

In other projects, the university will:

• Renovate Wingate Hall and Wait Chapel during the next two summers. The work, which includes new seating, painting, air conditioning and other improvements, is expected to be completed by the fall of 1998. Wingate Hall will house the university’s divinity school, scheduled to open by 2000. The religion department will remain in Wingate Hall.
• Provide a central headquarters for the information systems department. The 70,000-square-foot building will be built on the site of the current indoor tennis center and also provide space for the military science program, food service and a satellite bookstore. The tennis center will be torn down in March and a new center with coaches’ offices, eight indoor courts and other features will be built on the location of the current Piccolo Park next to Groves Stadium. The new tennis building should be finished by the summer of 1997.
• Once military science moves into the information systems building,estimated to open in 1998,the program’s former quarters in Reynolds Gymnasium will be renovated for the student health services department, now in Kitchin Residence Hall. Student health services’ area will have twice the space, with a pharmacy, labs, nurse’s station and several examination rooms.
• The campus ministries office and a new residence hall lounge will go into the student health services’ former space.

Sides said that Wake Forest’s construction program will continue many improvements that have been underway for several years, such as the installation of lines to pipe cold water for air conditioning throughout the campus to complete what is known as the “chiller loop.” As part of efforts to provide the new buildings with air conditioning and to provide a backup for the entire campus, Wake Forest will build a new chiller plant near the practice football field with two 600-ton chiller units and room for two more. An emergency generator for the power plant and facilities management is also being added. The projects are expected to be completed by next April.

In the construction program, Wake Forest will continue adding lighting on campus as part of overall security improvements. Sides said that the construction also includes adding more outside emergency phones.

The first new renovation project expected to be completed is Shorty’s, a coffee house in the Benson University Center that will feature Wake Forest memorabilia. Shorty’s is expected to open in January.