Nichols To Build $7M Campus Center
Rendering/Courtesy
BUILDING UP: Nichols College in Dudley plans to demolish its Alumni Hall and erect a new, 26,600-square-foot campus center in its place.
After completing two new residence halls in recent years, Dudley’s Nichols College is continuing its construction tare with plans for a new campus center.
The 26,600-square-foot, three-story building will replace the existing 17,000-square-foot Alumni Hall. The new facility will be built on the Alumni Hall footprint and will host multi-purpose class and conference rooms, offices for student services and student activities, food service and recreational areas.
The total budget for the project is $7 million. Construction is expected to start in April 2011 and the new building should be complete for the start of the fall 2012 semester.
Juster, Pope, Frazier of Northampton was the architecture firm that designed the building.
“This project been on the horizon,” said Thomas R. Cafaro, vice president for enrollment and marketing at the college. “It was part of the strategic plan we developed five years ago to increase the size of the college from 850 students to 1,100 students.”
Upgrade
Cafaro also added that the age of Alumni Hall — it was built 50 years ago — has made it difficult to keep pace with changing expectations from new generations of students.
“Technology’s changed and the way kids recreate has changed,” he said. “Now you need computer space, cyber cafés, wireless access. It’s just a different world.”
Nichols College’s expansion has included the recent construction of two apartment-style residence halls that serve primarily as transition housing for upperclassmen. Cafaro said 85 percent of students live on campus.
Nichols is a nonprofit, four-year institution that offers associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The college is currently searching for a new president. Its previous chief executive, Debra Townsley, left in April for a new position as president of Peace College in North Carolina. Gerald Fels, former president of Commerce Insurance in Webster, is serving as interim president of the college.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments