“The facilities for those departments are limited where they are now,” said Darrell Hart, associate vice president for facilities. “They are scattered, and they just don’t have enough space.”
Funded entirely by private donations from two separate Eccles Foundations, the $17-million project is about 35 percent complete. Spindler Construction, a local firm, is overseeing the project, which was designed by architect Bob Jacoby.
Hart said the planning process has been “fairly lengthy,” because it started as two separate projects.
One project, a child care center to replace the one on campus above the heating plant, was considering a site on 800 East that turned out to be too wet, Hart said. Officials on that project and one for a research center decided to combine the two to reduce costs.
“Our donors liked that site where the tennis courts used to be,” Hart said,” and the courts needed to be replaced anyway. They were in bad condition.”
The tennis courts were moved to an open lot across the street to the west of the Nutrition and Food Science Building, leaving the space available for construction.
According to an information sheet provided by project manager Tom Graham, the new building will allow for a new grass area that will become a play area for Edith Bowen Lab School and bring a sense of cohesion to the new and old education buildings.
The new building will consist of a one-level front portion, which will house classrooms and a child care wing, as well as a three-story back portion that will consist mainly of office and lab space for researchers studying hearing impairment.
Special features in the building will include the newest technology in sound-dampening and air-flow engineering to keep a quiet workspace that is “not inhibited by unnecessary sound,” Hart said.
Features like those will be helpful for researchers from the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management and the Child Language and Disorders Clinic, the Emma Eccles Jones Early Childhood Education Center and the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Center for Early Care and Education. But they will be essential for the hearing-impaired children at the new “Sound Beginnings Preschool”.
Hart said research in hearing impairment is moving away from signing and more toward ocular implants, and the facility is designed to accommodate the needs of everyone involved.
“It’s going to be a really cool project,” Hart said, “and we’re excited about the opportunity to build something with so many special features. The architecture is going to be awesome and we look forward to seeing it go up.”
The building will open as soon as construction is completed and residents are moved in and setup, likely for this fall.
The building that currently hold the child care home will be taken down after the move and the space will be returned to the energy plant, in case it wants to expand, which is what the building was originally intended for, Hart said.
There is a conceptual model of the new building in the existing Education Building’s main hall.
“It should be fun to look at when it’s done,” Hart said. “And the new main corridor is designed for kids to enjoy.”
– chelsey.gensel@aggiemail.usu.edu