TCU Announces $100m Construction Project

[MrMustang1965]

FORT WORTH - Texas Christian University unveiled plans Monday to bolster academic and student life with a $100 million construction project in the center of the campus.

A new student union will be built facing the existing union, which will be renovated, and new residential halls will flank the space between the buildings, officials announced.

"One of the things we want to do is to bring the academic programs and the residential programs together," said Don Mills, vice chancellor for student affairs.

"We're going to create an environment where students can rise to their highest potential."

TCU officials also announced a $10.5 million renovation for the School of Education. The façade on the building, which originally housed the divinity school, will be restored to its classical 1914 appearance, and an addition will triple its space.

"We're going to make the quality of the facility match the quality of the education," said TCU Chancellor Victor Boschini.

The education school project is expected to be complete by 2007, and the transformation in the center of campus by 2008, Boschini said.

With the upgrades, TCU hopes to attract better, not more, students, he said. TCU trustees froze undergraduate enrollment at 7,200 students, and the school has slightly fewer students registered.

"We've grown in the number of students, but we haven't filled in the infrastructure around them," Boschini said.

TCU will pay for the construction projects with donations and bonds. Brian Gutierrez, vice chancellor for finance and administration, said the university has a AA bond rating.

An increased emphasis on students living on campus has become a major -- and expensive -- focus of higher education in recent years; many schools are pouring millions into technologically up-to-date dorms and creating programs targeting freshman who live together.

Boschini said the new residence halls will encourage students to live on campus for more of their undergraduate career and to graduate within four years.

The project will add 1,000 new beds, bringing the total number of dorm beds on campus to 4,400.

More than 300 parking spaces will be eliminated, Boschini said, but 1,000 spaces will be added elsewhere.

Education Dean Samuel Deitz said he expects his school's new building and additional space will help recruit students and instructors because the project will allow for special modifications right down to each classroom.

"It's not only more space, it's better space," he said. "It's just really exciting all the things we'll be able to do."

[SMU Football Blog]

Oooooooo....$100M. Sounds exciting.

Actually the center of campus is University Drive. They'd reall F up traffic if the put a building in the middle of the street. I don't know how my parents would get to Einsteins' bagels.

[jtstang]

Will they keep true to their architectural style? Early Institutional Ugly, I think it's called?

[SMU Football Blog]

pale yellow brick is very attractive.

[Stallion]

darn jtstang beat me to it. $ 100 Million on construction and $100 Dollars on the Architect.

[FroggieFever]

In the Works:
$110 Mil Student Center Project (the Intermention) [APPROVED]
$99 +- Mil Performance Hall Project [PROJECT PLANNING]
$54 Mil TCU Berry Street Project [IN PROGRESS \ CONSTRUCTION]
$75 +- Mil ACS Renovation Project [IN PROGRESS -- PENDING APPROVAL]

$.9 - Mil Baseball Scoreboard Renovation; Instant Replay [IN PROGRESS \ CONSTRUCTION]

etc..

[gostangs]

We have put over 500 million of new buildings on the ground in the last four yrs - if they had any pride they would keep quiet until they did something worthwhile - what next, a million dollar expansion of the mens bathroom?

Yeehaw - they are expanding the jiffy lube over on university!!!

[MrMustang1965]

Yeehaw - they are expanding the jiffy lube over on university!!!

Jiffy Lube has gone out of business in Texas and other parts of the country.

[FroggieFever]

Jiffy Lube may be out of business in the Dallas area--not in Fort Worth and surrounding areas. There are still several open in Fort Worth [where I live], Houston [where my grandparents live], and College Station [where my uncle lives].

Please, oh please, provide me with some evidence, proof, that you have added "500 million" worth of buildings. Your endowment's earnings can not support an expense such as that (your endowment has not even topped the billion mark, unlike TCU's, however)... just for buildings (not even if you were to cut your 'quality' education). I am very skeptical of this, and, I am going to conclude that you are downright lying; please, by all means, prove me otherwise wrong.

Oh yeah, if you want to note what projects you completed in the last four years, why didn't you say so!?!?! I'd be MORE THAN HAPPY to list ours...

[MrMustang1965]

Jiffy Lube may be out of business in the Dallas area--not in Fort Worth and surrounding areas. There are still several open in Fort Worth [where I live], Houston [where my grandparents live], and College Station [where my uncle lives].

Oh, good...they're keeping TCU grads employed in the grease pits!

[LakeHighlandsPony]

I hope TCU stays consistent with the East Berlin motif of the 1950"s.

[MustangSally]

FrogieFever, I think you meant to say:

Jiffy Lube may be out of business in the Dallas area--not in Fort Worth and surrounding areas. There are still several open in Fort Worth [where I work], Houston [where my grandparents work], and College Station [where my uncle works].

That looks about right.

[SMU Football Blog]

Please, oh please, provide me with some evidence, proof, that you have added "500 million" worth of buildings. Your endowment's earnings can not support an expense such as that (your endowment has not even topped the billion mark, unlike TCU's, however)... just for buildings (not even if you were to cut your 'quality' education). I am very skeptical of this, and, I am going to conclude that you are downright lying; please, by all means, prove me otherwise wrong.

Coming on this board and accusing is of lying. That is a little rude, don't you think? Some TCU guy came on here a few weeks agao and bragged about the new la di da recreation center at TCU or somesuch. And we were like, "Yeah, we just added 115,000 square feet to ours as well."

Here is the short version: SMU embarked on the Centennial Master Plan for major renovations and new construction and raised $550,000,000.00 for such purposes. All construction is nearly complete. Honestly, I am not sure how many buildings have been added in the last five years. Not including fraternity houses, I think we have added 15 buildings with another three or so to go. That doesn't include major renovations of all the residence halls and several buildings, which was also done. In addition, SMU has acquired the condominium project in the SE corner of the map for purposes not publicly stated. SMU also purchased the Mrs. Baird's bakery at the extreme south of the map; again, for purposes not disclosed.

If you look at this map, the items in red and orange are new or completed construction. The dark blue is major renovation.

[jtstang]

And that does not even consider the facility to be built at SMU to house the George Dubya Memorial Bookmobile, which will NOT be constructed in TCU's Early Institutional Ugly architectural styling.

[DiamondM]

Most recently, SMU finished (or nearly so -- it was open for tours at Homecoming) new Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports, with a climbing wall, pool and various other amenities. It was a $25 million project.

Just before that, earlier this semester it opened the new Collins Center at the b-school ($13 million) and the Junkins Engineering Building ($15 million). There is also the new Embrey Engineering Building ($15 million) is underway, and last year (or the year before) the Laura Lee Blanton Student Services Building ($13 million) was dedicated.

Then there's the aforementioned fraternity houses that the University just built to replace the ones that will be torn down to put a new parking garage.

Not to mention the 50-odd million $ for Ford Stadium and Paul Lloyd All sports center, the $20 plus million for the construction of the Meadows Museum, the Dedman Life Sciences Building completed in the last 2 years ($18 million), and various other smaller projects.

So if you need more "proof," why don't you take a walk around our campus.