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Transformation under way: you won't
believe the progress on the new Academic Center!
A hard-hat “inside” tour of the 52,000-square-foot construction site reveals exciting testimony that Manchester students and faculty will have its new Academic Center early next summer.
That’s right: a new learning center of classrooms, lecture rooms, labs, faculty offices plus a Welcome Center for admissions … ready one year after the Alumni Days groundbreaking last spring. “We are on-target for a June 4 possession of the Academic Center from the contractors,” says Jack Gochenaur ’70, vice president for finance and treasurer.
The bare, concrete elevator shaft on the north end of the construction site makes an important declaration about the new Academic Center: Accessibility. The rooms are framed in, the steel is up on the new north-end section, the foundation is laid for the Welcome Center, bright-yellow insulation has replaced the original exterior walls, and the utilities are installed. Dry-walling and painting is scheduled for December and January.
A Spartan web cam is focused on the construction site. Go ahead; click here to see what’s happening right now.
Fundraising continues for the $9.1 million transformation of Holl-Kintner Hall of Science into a state-of-the-art home for disciplines currently scattered in buildings both aged and much newer throughout campus. Donors still can find naming and other giving opportunities to support Manchester’s academic strength. Click here for giving assistance.
The Academic Center will house a number of academic disciplines, including accounting and business, communication studies, economics, education, English, finance, history and political science, management, marketing, modern languages, peace studies, psychology, religion and philosophy, sociology and social work.
Accompanying 16 classrooms are faculty offices, study lounges, a small lecture auditorium, a peace studies library, conference rooms and areas for language study, psychology research, video editing and accounting multi-media.
The Welcome Center at the south end of the structure will house private areas for families to meet with admissions counselors, a hospitality area with a café and staff offices and work areas.
General contractor is Michael Kinder & Sons Inc. of Fort Wayne, working from designs by MSKTD & Associates Inc.
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