New and ongoing construction projects will continue to change and expand NSU’s main campus.
These projects include the beginning of construction of NSU’s new emergency facility, the ongoing construction of the Center for Collaborative Research, and future improvements like the rerouting of 36th Street and a new bridge south of the residence halls.
The Office of Facilities Management announced on Sept. 6 that construction of the anticipated 12,000-square foot emergency facility will begin at the University Park Plaza the week of Sept. 8. President George Hanbury announced the groundbreaking of the facility last year as a partnership between NSU and the Hospital Corporation of America East Florida.
The project will limit parking on about one and half acres of land between Pier 1 Imports and Bank of America. Parking is available behind University Park Plaza in the West Parking Garage, located near the University School. Construction will last approximately six to seven months.
Randy Seneff, project manager at Facilities Management, said a project that will have the greatest impact on students will be the rerouting of 36th Street, scheduled to start around November or December.
Right now, the road goes straight from the University Park Plaza to the Don Taft University Center, where it splits into Mary McCahill Drive and SW 72nd Avenue. Seneff said the road will be rerouted to connect further south at 72nd Avenue. After relocation, the old 36th Street will become an access road.
Jessica Brumley, director of design and construction at the Office of Facilities Management, said the grass and gravel fields beside the current road will eventually become sports fields.
Seneff said, “We’re basically pushing the road further south which will open up the space where 36th Street is now for expansion of the main campus. “That road will continue all the way to the road where the residence halls are, but [the construction] will be done in phases to minimize the impact to the traffic that we have right now.”
Roadway improvements will also be made to Nova Road and Mary McCahill Drive.
Over the summer, work continued on the Center for Collaborative Research, a 215,000-square foot research facility. Construction is occurring near the Health Professions Division Parking Structure.
Underground work was done to connect the site to the plant that provides the main campus with electrical and chilled water lines. Frontage Road, which borders the parking structure and the field of the Doctors Hospital Miami Dolphins Training Facility was moved about 100 feet south. Seneff said this caused partial lane closures, but these worked out well and the work was completed.
Now that the sitework for the building is done, the structure will be erected. Columns are starting to go up and construction has started on the second of the six floors.
“It’s going to be just short a month per floor,” Seneff said. “By wintertime, we should be somewhere around the fifth floor.”
In about three weeks, construction will begin on a bridge south of the Cultural Living Center Residence Hall. The bridge will cross over the canal parallel to Nova Road to connect the residence halls to the Bill Gessner Sports Complex, used by the Office of Campus Recreation.
“Right now, the only access [to the field] is a dirt road,” Seneff said. “This will be a concrete bridge, lighted and with security provisions. It’s really just a safer path to allow students — especially residential students — to get to the field.”
The arched bridge will be a pre-fabricated structure of aluminum, built by an outside contractor. Right now, the project is waiting for building permits from the city of Davie. Construction will last about four months and should not have a high impact on students.
“It’s not a high traffic area,” Seneff said. “There may be a partial lane closure at some point when there are deliveries or some kind of work going on. But it’s really not too bad on that particular road and there will be flagmen present to allow vehicles to pass.”
Around October or November, a new building called Sports Center II will begin construction. It will be located in the field between the Aquatics Complex and the University School’s Noel P. Brown Sports Center. Both the University School and the NSU Athletics Department will use the two-story complex. Discussion are ongoing about what offices will occupy the building.
However, Brumley said that one office which will eventually move to the new sports center is Broward County’s Special Olympics office, currently housed in the Parker South Module, which will be torn down sometime in late 2015. The building also houses NSU and University School classrooms. Where these classrooms and other offices will be relocated is still in planning.
During the summer, classrooms in the Parker Building that had not been renovated within the last five years were remodeled.
“They got new carpet, new paint and new ceiling tiles,” said Brumley. “We added some lighting.”
