FAYETTEVILLE - The University of Arkansas System’s board of trustees gave its Fayetteville campus the go-ahead Friday on construction-related decisions involving six projects.
Meeting Friday in Fayetteville, the 10-member board unanimously ratified projects approved Thursday by the Buildings and Grounds Committee, including an art district, new academic spaces and a pair of new sorority houses.
Three of the items trustees voted on were project approvals and the selection of design firms for major campus projects.
One of those was the $2.6 million renovation of the Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences Building into academic space.
“This is the renovation of an abandoned, two-story creamery,” Chancellor G. David Gearhart told the committee Thursday, adding that it will be financed by a mandatory student fee dedicated to campus facilities.
The Fayetteville campus established the fee in fall 2008, starting at $2 per credit hour, with a plan to gradually raise it annually until fall 2012, when it reached $10 per credit hour. A full-time student taking a typical 15 credit-hour load pays $150 per semester.
The fee will support 2014 general obligation bonds for the creamery’s renovation, according to a UA capital-project proposal supplied to trustees. The proposal projects occupancy by August 2014.
The building was originally built in 1955 at a cost of $490,844. A second phase completed in 1964 cost $861,300.
A $4.1 million project known as the “Art and Design District” also received a thumbs-up Friday. Trustees approved the project as well as the selection of design firms Modus Studio of Fayetteville and El Dorado of Kansas City, Mo.
The district will house UA’s art and geosciences departments. The district will include 20,000 square feet of renovated space in an office building and warehouse east of Hill Avenue as well as construction of 17,000 square feet of new space adjacent to them.
Again, the student facilities fee will be tapped. It will support debt service on $4.1 million in 2015 general obligation bonds.
The third campus project was the Cleveland and Hall “low-impact development parking project.” Jorgensen and Associates of Fayetteville was chosen to design it.
The $2.6 million project is expected to expand student parking by 210-230 spaces on Maple Hill, just west of the adjacent Leverett Elementary School, by summer 2014.
The design will include g reen fe atures such as low-impact water capture, filtration, treatment and infiltration, according to documents.
“The lot should provide curb appeal and have sufficient tree canopy to not only reduce heat island effect, but also screen the cars from view of sleeping rooms,” a capital project proposal says. Heat island effect is a phenomenon scientists have noted in which pavement and rooftops absorb and radiate the sun’s heat, raising temperatures in urban areas compared with rural areas.
The new parking area will be paid by auxiliary Transit and Parking revenue and university reserves, which will support 2014 general obligation bonds.
The board also approved two sorority-house projectsas well as the selection of design firms and general contractor or construction managers: The Phi Mu sorority-house project, which is estimated at $11.4 million and scheduled to be mostly complete in May 2016.
The house would measure up to 36,000 square feet and provide 75-85 beds, according to university documents, and would feature a front porch and garden space. It would be built on Sorority Row, “at one of two adjacent sites near the intersection of Maple and Leverett streets,” the capital proposal reads.
Phi Mu’s national housing corporation will fund the house.
Architects and engineers chosen were Core Architects of Rogers, with Michael G. Imber of San Antonio, and Cunningham + Associates of Columbia, Mo. CDI Contractors of Little Rock and Fayetteville was chosen asthe general contractor or construction manager.
The Alpha Chi Omega sorority-house project, also on Sorority Row at one of the two adjacent sites, has the same cost estimate, planned square footage, bed space and completion target as the Phi Mu house, and also would include a front porch and garden area.
Project funding will come from bonds, with annual debt service paid by housing charges and member parlor and usage fees, as well as financial support from the Alpha Chi Omega national housing corporation.
Architects and engineers chosen were SCM Architects of Little Rock and Fayetteville with Curtis & Windham of Houston. The general contractor or construction manager chosen was Kinco Constructors of Little Rock and Springdale.
The board also approved the university’s plan to buy property at 1554 W. MartinLuther King Jr. Blvd. in Fayetteville to use as parking in the short term.
A 576-square-foot building sits on the 0.46-acre tract of land, which also has about 16,000 square feet of asphalt-paved parking, according to materials UA System President Donald Bobbitt gave to the committee.
The owners, Masood Boroojeni Poodeh and Elaheh Badie, accepted the university’s offer of $365,500, which was less than the $370,000 the university’s appraiser said the property was worth, according to Bobbitt’s Sept. 3 memorandum.
“The property will be used for parking until needed for future university expansion,” the memorandum said, adding that the campus also sought trustees’ approval “to contract for the demolition and removal of the structure situated on the property at such time as the university administration deems appropriate.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/14/2013