On-campus housing will receive another expansion over the next year.
Sewell Hall, which served primarily as a dorm for athletes since its construction in 1962, although a mix of both athletes and non-athletes have lived there, was demolished last week to make room for a new residence hall.
Ben Chapman, construction project manager, said the demolition process took fewer than two weeks.
"Yeah, the structure is down, and pretty much they're sorting the material by concrete and steel because they do, in essence, recycle and send it to the dump," Chapman said. "So the foundation's left, that's kind of what they're working on now."
Chapman said work on the foundation should be complete by the end of October.
"Basically when they get done, they grade in essence, smooth out that hillside, and then they will put out some grass seed and stabilize the hill and it will just remain that way until we start construction on the new building," Chapman said.
According to Gregory Parsons, University architect, construction for the new residence hall is expected to begin in early 2012.
Parsons said the new structure will be an improvement over the old one.
"(Sewell) was an outdated kind of construction, the walk-up type. You walked up to the outside, more like a motel than a dorm," Parsons said.
"It wasn't very community-like. With a dorm, with the residence halls that we have, the idea is to kind of have like a family or a team or a community kind of environment, where you just have walk-up apartment style does not really lend itself to that."
The new building will have approximately 410 rooms, a 185 percent increase over Sewell's 144 bedrooms. The building will house no more than 49 percent athletes, in compliance with an NCAA regulation stating strictly athletic dorms are not permitted.
While Sewell Hall was managed by the Athletic Department, the new residence hall will be under Housing and Residence Life.
Kim Trupp, director of Housing and Residence Life, said many student athletes are currently living in the Village residence halls. However, when the new building opens, many will be relocated there.
Trupp said the new building will be a "top-of-the-line" dorm.
"Almost all the suites in the new building will be two-bedroom, two-bath units with the same kind of common area and kitchenette as in the Village," Trupp said. "The bedrooms in this new building will be a good bit larger than the bedrooms in the Village. We'll also have a washer and dryer stack unit in each of the suites and a few extra furnishings that you don't have in the Village."
Trupp said discussions are taking place regarding a dining hall for the new building.
"We're still working out the dining hall piece, location and what-have-you, but that is part of the project, to also add the new dining venue, either in the building itself or in close proximity," Trupp said.
Parsons said the budget for the building was recently approved at $59 million dollars.
"The funding is basically a bond issue that will be paid for by revenue from the housing, same way we did the Village housing, the new Village buildings," Parsons said. "The University borrowed the money and then the revenue from rent goes to pay for it."
Trupp said the building should be ready by August 2013.
In the meantime, Chapman said construction in the area should not significantly affect students or traffic.
"Every so often there's a truck exiting, they probably have, you know, five to 10 trucks exiting a day, a dump truck full of material and we've got, you know, a flag man and he helps stop traffic," Chapman said. "So far, we've been doing it the past few weeks and there really has not been any hiccups at all, so it's gone real smoothly."
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