MUNCIE, Ind. - Renovations to the 35-year-old West Quad academic building will begin this summer and will feature a new stair tower and lobby windows open to the historic Old Quadrangle.

The work will involve new stairs, restrooms, air conditioning and lighting systems, as well as several upgrades for Ball State University's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management (NREM).

West Quad, originally a storage building, was converted in 1977 to academic classrooms and offices, according to Thomas Frisbie-Fulton, Facilities Planning director.

"The new renovations will enhance the student spaces and also develop a more gracious entrance from the Old Quad," he said. "From a campus planning point of view, the design will connect the building to the Quadrangle by new landscaping, pedestrian walks and a small entrance plaza."

The renovations are being designed by Ball State graduates at MSKTD Architects of Fort Wayne and Muncie landscape architects Rundell Ernstsberger Associates. The $3.5 million project will be completed in late 2001.

The renovations will take place in three phases, according to Susan Johnson, Facilities Planning and Management staff architect.

Beginning this summer, renovations to NREM include modernizing offices, a conference room and corridors, and upgrading the NREM lab's ventilation system.

New restrooms will be installed in each of West Quad's five floors and a new south stairwell will replace the current interior stair in the journalism department.

The second phase will involve the new entrance and plaza and a new sprinkler system, plus the building will be made fully wheelchair accessible.

The final phase will begin in summer 2001, after the remainder of the journalism department has moved to the new Art and Journalism Building currently under construction. Some of these areas will be renovated to provide a new electronic computer classroom, a computer lab, student lounge and graduate student offices for NREM.

TEMPORARY MOVES
To allow for renovations to West Quad to begin, the following temporary moves will take place this summer:

• The journalism graphics lab will move to the current Daily News newsroom.
• The Daily News advertising office will move to a currently vacant area on the first floor of the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.
• The newsroom will move to a computer lab in the basement of the Student Center. (The Daily News will make a final move in 2001 to the new Art and Journalism Building.)
• The present computer lab in the Student Center will be reopened in late summer across the hall from the newsroom.

By Nancy Prater, Web Editor

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Frisbie-Fulton by e-mail at tfrisbie@bsu.eduor by phone at (765) 285-4985.)