The 3000 block of Dyer Street is closed, there's a gaping hole in the ground beside the Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports, and the James M. Collins Executive Education Center is still minus a brick façade.
And that's just what's happening on the eastern edge of Southern Methodist University's property. Smaller jobs – such as repairing damaged sidewalks and renovating classrooms and offices – are continuing campuswide.
None of the major construction projects will be complete before students return this month, but officials say they're on track to finish on time, despite the recent downpours.
"You build some padding for rain and bad weather and stuff," said Gary Shultz, a spokesman for SMU who handles construction and parking issues. "You just can't run it like a train."
Shutting down part of Dyer Street to relocate three fraternity houses and building the business center are part of the university's Centennial Master Plan to expand the campus eastward, in the direction of Central Expressway. Officials approved the plan in the mid-1990s.
The Dedman Center expansion is a student-funded project.
Bishop Boulevard, currently the primary entryway, will become the ceremonial entrance to campus. The master plan calls for SMU Boulevard leading to the East Quad to be the university's main functional entrance.
The East Quad's centerpiece – the 60,000-square-foot Laura Lee Blanton Student Services Building – was dedicated in November 2003, 15 months after the adjacent Jerry Junkins Electrical Engineering Building. The Collins Executive Education Center will be the third structure. A fourth building has not been determined.
The three buildings were financed through a five-year capital campaign that generated $542 million in gifts and pledges. The Gerald J. Ford Stadium and Meadows Museum are some of the more high-profile results of the campaign.
Dr. Tom Barry, vice president for executive affairs and a marketing professor at SMU, has said that "the essence of all these physical plant changes is to create first-class, state-of-the-art facilities in order to encourage more and higher-quality students."
Here are some of the construction projects on the SMU campus:
East-side work
University Park closed Dyer Street between Airline Road and Dublin Street this summer so the school could demolish 11 university-owned houses. Two fraternity houses – Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Lambda Chi Alpha – and a parking lot will be built on the site of the homes, which have been razed.
The next step includes rerouting Dyer Street to connect with McFarlin Boulevard and building an 8-foot-high brick wall along Dyer. The connector street and parking lot should be done by the time crews start building the two fraternity houses in October.
Mr. Schultz said the fraternity houses are to open in August 2005.
Dedman Center expansion
The existing indoor track has been cut back to a U shape and the locker rooms are closed, but everything else is fully operational at the fitness facility.
"We're trying to stage this so that the students and the faculty and staff can still make use of it," Mr. Shultz said.
Officials say the expansion on the southern side of the building will be done by October 2005 and the existing facilities renovated by May 2006. The entire project is to be completed by fall 2006.
When finished, the center will include two basketball courts, an extended track, climbing and bouldering walls, an indoor soccer site, swimming facilities, and improved dressing and fitness rooms.
Collins executive center
Under construction since January, the Collins Executive Education Center is scheduled to open in November.
