Walking across Notre Dame's campus, one will most likely run into unfinished buildings, closed off paths and hear the sounds of large trucks or boulders echoing across the quad.
Several major construction projects are taking place on campus, including a nearly $58 million project on the Law School addition, said Craig Tiller, Senior Project Manager at the University Architect Office.
The new Law School building, which includes an addition plus renovation to the old building, will be 192,500 square feet, Tiller said. The addition is complete, and everyone has been moved into that part of the building so renovation work can be done on the old part of the building, he said.
The gates around the archway through the Law School building have been removed, so students can pass from Main Circle to DeBartolo Quad.
Once all work is complete, the classrooms will be in the new part of the building, while the library, career services and admissions will reside in the renovated part, he said.
"The new building has 205 seat classrooms, 270 seat classrooms, five seminar rooms and a whole host of teaching spaces," Tiller said.
Part of the reason the construction is being done is because the old Law School building was very "maze-like and had a lot of level changes."
"[There were] 17 different entrances into the library. You can imagine it was very problematic," he said. "Part of the renovation is to take out that confusion."
The nearly $58 million project was made possible solely through donations, and the new building, named Biochini Hall, is expected to be finished in June of 2010, Tiller said.
Additional construction projects are taking place across campus, including a new engineering building, named Stinson-Remick Hall, a new women's residence hall, Ryan Hall, and Geddes Hall, which will house the Institute for Church Life and Center for Social Concerns.
Jim Lyphout, vice president for Business Operations, said there is still interior construction to be done on all of these projects, "while Ryan, Stinson-Remick and Geddes Hall still have remaining exterior work to complete."
Lyphout expects Ryan Hall and Geddes Hall will be completed by Aug. 1 while Stinson-Remick will be completed in December of this year.
Construction also started on the Joyce Center in September, with the foundations of the Purcell Pavilion, Lyphout said.
The Purcell Pavilion will be a "47,000 gross square foot addition to the south dome of the JACC," according to the University Architect Web site.
The Web site also says that the project will include a new major entry for the arena, a new varsity shop, new ticketing operations, new concessions and a new third floor club for hospitality.
