At the Ohio University Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 18, the Board approved OU entering a $965,442 construction contract with Higgins Building Company for an addition to Elson Hall on the Zanesville Campus.
The 8,900 square-foot expansion of Elson Hall, the campus' center of activity, contains utility infrastructure upgrading, landscaping, adding five or six more faculty offices and seven classrooms with 35 to 75 seats in order to accommodate the increase in enrollment.
Since 1998, Zanesville has had a 48.7 percent increase in enrollment, although from 2003 to 2004, it decreased 4.9 percent.
The campus is currently using mobile classrooms as a temporary solution to the increase of students.
Once the Elson addition is complete for Winter Quarter 2006, the new classrooms will allow the campus to renovate older classrooms, said John Kotowski, assistant vice president for Facilities Planning.
OU hired Wandel & Schnell, Architects, Inc. to develop the construction documents, Kotowski said. The company was selected because of its past experience with the Zanesville campus and its knowledge of class facilities.
Wandel & Schnell, based out of Columbus, has renovated Elson Hall three times, said Julie Davey, administrative associate for facilities management on Zanesville's campus.
The cost of the entire project is estimated at $2,080,130 and will be funded using Senate Bill 189 and the anticipated FY 2005-2006 Capital Bill.
Regional Campuses don't receive a lot of money so they have to do things in multiple phases or wait until they accumulate the money
Kotowski said.
Every two years each campus receives capital improvement money. In order to finance the addition, Zanesville re-appropriated funds from two years ago and added it to this year's.
--Carolyn Casey 17
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Carolyn Casey
Extra funds allow for Zanesville's needed renovations
