Thursday, March 05, 2009
UC Expansion project construction contracts awarded at Trustees meeting
 The University of Southern Indiana’s architecturally innovative University Center Expansion project moved closer to construction today with the awarding of construction contracts to three Indiana firms during the USI Board of Trustees meeting. The $18.4 million project incorporates a range of local products and artifacts to mark the building as one that is uniquely at home in Evansville and southwestern Indiana, and one that will have enduring special meaning for the University and the community. The project is intended to not only provide vitally needed space for the rapidly growing university, but also to celebrate its Evansville and southwestern Indiana roots in a permanent way, in the very heart of the campus. Weddle Brothers Inc. of Bloomington was awarded the general construction contract in the amount of $10,102,900. Deig Brothers Lumber and Construction, Evansville, was awarded a contract for mechanical work related to the project for $1,809,006, and Capital Electric, also of Evansville, was awarded a $2,586,298 contract for project-related electrical work. The $14,499,104 in total contracts awarded is the bulk of the estimated $18,400,000 cost of the project. The balance of the project cost is dedicated to future furniture costs, professional fees, and other project-related expenses. Holzman Moss Architecture of New York City designed the expansion project. Hafer Associates and Wilkie Structural Engineers are the engineering firms on the project. Sodexho, Inc. the university’s long-time food service contractor, prepared the food-service design. Construction is slated to begin in early April, with demolition of the existing conference center bridge occurring in May. The project is expected to be completed by the start of spring semester 2011. Well over 100 construction workers will be employed to build the project over the planned two-year construction period. The project is largely funded by a University bond issue completed in mid-February. The costs of supporting the borrowing are already incorporated into the University’s budget and tuition, so tuition will not increase further as a result of the project. The project converts the existing vacant former library building, which is attached to the existing University Center, into additional University Center space, and adds a central element, a 97 foot tall conical-shaped tower, to the campus landscape. The project reshapes the 60,000-square foot former library building into dining, meeting, and student organization space, and replaces the existing conference center bridge linking the old library and existing University Center with new dining and meeting space. The project adds a total of 17,785 of new space as well, increasing the total size of the existing University Center complex by over 77,000 square feet. The tower element, which will be largely clad in Indiana limestone, contains a dining room on the first level, and a student lounge on the second floor. The design has evolved slightly from earlier versions. The top treatment is now more integrated into the overall shape of the tower. The project is distinguished not only by its uniquely shaped centerpiece, but also by its extensive use of local building materials, applied, in many cases, in groundbreaking new ways. Many new concrete columns in the building, for example, will be clad with vitrified clay pipe made by Can Clay Corporation of Cannelton, and Can Clay will also supply a clay block that, until this project, has had an exclusively industrial application, to line the walls of the building’s central atrium. The ceiling of the central atrium, which will be dome-shaped, will be decorated with 1,200 chair legs, from Jasper (IN) Chair Company’s Series 508 chair, arranged in a geometric pattern. The limestone on the tower will be a quarry-faced roughback product from BG Hoadley Quarries in Bloomington, Indiana. Berry Plastics will be donating almost 3,000 square feet of digitally printed plastic sheeting usually used for the manufacture of plastic toothpaste-type tubes for use as custom-designed wall covering in selected areas of the project. Alcoa’s Warrick Operations is working on a plan to supply a series of solid aluminum ingot ends that will be machined into benches for use in the lobby. Finally, as has been previously announced, the limestone entry from the former Orr Iron Building, which was salvaged when the downtown building was demolished, will be a decorative element in the central atrium of the project. When complete, the expansion will contain two new eateries, one specializing in salads and the other offering Mexican fare. Student organization space, now located in the basement of the existing University Center, will more than quadruple in size and move to a sunlit space in the new portion of the complex, with an expansive adjoining outdoor patio. Dining area seating and lounge areas, which are critically needed, will be added. Kathy Funke News and Information Services 812/465-7050 or kfunke@usi.edu |
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