ASU will break ground on a new mediated classroom building next week, pending the Thursday approval of the Arizona Board of Regents.
The building, slated to open for spring 2004, will provide sorely-needed classrooms and office space by replacing ASU's busiest visitor parking lot, Visitor Lot 8, at Myrtle Avenue and 10th Street.
Lot 8 has been closed since March 1, when crews began pre-construction work, such as relocating utilities, salvaging trees and relocating the nearby KAET satellite. Remaining pre-construction work was wrapped up during spring break, said Ted Cary, ASU director of Capital Program Management Group.
The $58.7 million project will be a 270,000 square-foot building that includes 26 classrooms, an office tower and a computer lab. The building will be equipped with computers, projectors and other multimedia tools.
The new building will house the social science department, the speech and hearing department and other liberal arts and sciences departments.
The fourth floor of the current Social Sciences building was condemned as unsafe during a routine inspection last year and was evacuated. Faculty and staff have been temporarily relocated to the Matthews Center until they can move into the new building.
Since closing Lot 8, which provided 187 parking spaces, ASU Parking and Transit Services has opened 192 metered spaces in Lot 17 West on the northeast corner of Apache Boulevard and College Avenue.
"By opening these spaces, we are addressing that demand today," said Linda Riegel, ASU director of Parking and Transit Services. "But we plan to create an additional 200 spaces in Tempe Center, so we are providing more nearby parking to visitors."
Parking in the Tempe Center will become available sometime this month, once additional parking meters arrive.
Reach the reporter at kristina.davis@asu.edu.
