Colorado State University has entered into a stage of renewal and renovation. Many buildings on campus are aging and the student body and employee population is growing. This develops the need for new and updated substantial facilities and transportation groundwork.
“The campus has grown pretty steadily over the years, but the inventory of campus buildings has not grown with it,” said Fred Habercht, assistant director for landscape and planning. “The campus grew by leaps and bounds between 1954-1968, and then there was a period of very quiet growth until the early 2000’s. As the campus has continued to grow we are building to meet the need of demand.”
According to Habercht, once this current phase of construction is finished, there will be a 10 percent increase in terms of square feet to the inventory campus has to teach, research and house students.
By the end of August, six out of what Habercht called the 3+3+4 will be completed.
“We have three projects completed earlier this year: the CSU horticulture center, the Research BLVD parking lot, and the UC fine arts building,” Habercht said. “This year, by the end of August, the bicycle pedestrian pass under Prospect, Aggie Village, and the new parking garage at Piktin Street and College Avenue will be completed. The big four remaining–chemistry, biology, the stadium and the CSU health and medical center–will be completed in 2017.”
These stages of campus construction do come with some delays and detours. But, Habercht says they are doing everything they can to meet all accommodations.
“To get to point A to point B, we need to provide accessible access,” Habercht said. “If the closure is beyond that, then we provide an accessible detour, and some of our long term improvements are making for short term ADA problems. The two summer projects consist of putting in a new eight foot wide sidewalk will all of the ADA accommodations at the corners, replacing a non ADA compliant sidewalk at Widcum Street. At Lake Street, we are putting in another eight foot attached sidewalk replacing a non-ADA compliant one. For each project we identify an accessible route, and if that is lost, then we get in temporary accommodations.”
Collegian reporter Ashley Haberman can be reached at news@collegian.com
