Renovations for Patterson Hall are nearing completion, and could be ready as early as next week.
Herb Carlson, Assistant Vice President for Construction Design and Management, has been hard at work to complete the new additions to Patterson Hall.
The building was originally an all male dormitory.
Later, it became a vacated residential facility that was intended to be demolished when the school decided to build the new residence halls.
At the same time that the residence halls were being built, Vincent Science Center was to be renovated and a temporary home was needed for the departments.
“We did some renovation to Patterson so that the staff of the departments could move in until Vincent was finished,” Carlson said. “However, the departments liked what they saw in the Patterson renovations.”
The school decided not to demolish the building, and instead bring it up to code so the departments could use it.
“In the mean time, Exercise Science became an expanding program with more majors. We had been doing studies on how that building could be expanded to accommodate their needs,” said Carlson.
The addition to Patterson consists of two large spaces, one for movement, and the other for exercise machines.
Dr. Holmstrup, Assistant Professor in the Exercise & Rehabilitation Sciences department, is new to the staff this year, but is excited to see the renovations completed.
“I think they are going to be great,” Holmstrup said. “We have a whole new facility for teaching in the exercise science classes. It is going to be a big benefit for the department because we will be able to do more practical and hands-on teachings with the group exercise and resistance training classes.”
“By next week, we should be having group exercise classes upstairs and the downstairs should be completed,” Holmstrup said. “The equipment that will be coming in after fall break will be a new circuit of resistance training equipment and computer programmed machines. It is some pretty high-tech stuff that will give great hands-on experience to our exercise science majors.”
The university bonded the addition for a total of 2.6 million dollars that added 14,000 square feet to the building.
Within that new space will be a fibers studio, which is now located next to the campus police station.
Also, the Criminology and Criminal Justice department will be located on the ground floor in the south wing.
According to Carlson, access to Patterson Hall has also changed.
“We used to have to drive across the pedestrian walkway to get to it, but now you can get there by way of the new parking lot,” said Carlson.
“Now garbage pickup and service vehicles can reach their destination without endangering any students.”
Another major project that will soon be underway on campus is Miller Auditorium, which is currently in the design phase, and construction should start up early next year.
In addition, the Student Government Association is planning a new Deck Hockey Rink to be placed by the intramural sports field.
