Starting last May, Juneau Construction of Miami-Dade County broke ground on a new residential hall to be built for undergraduate students. This new undergraduate residential hall will be housed on top of the former practice soccer field and on the corner of College Drive and Perimeter Rd. It will hold 609 beds and 208 units. As of now, it is slated to be completed for July of 2019 and be ready for move-in for residential students in late August 2019.
The Residence Hall is made from concrete components that come precast and prefabricated with installation. These pieces are then transported over from the Tampa Facility and erected on site. According to Daniel Alfonso, Vice President of Facilities Management at NSU, the influx of new students coming in and the needs of current students, requires NSU be equally aggressive in scheduling the building of additional structures on campus.
NSU is working with Grycon construction on building a parking garage in the coming months, which is also slated to be operational by July of 2019. This parking garage will create 1,300 spaces on campus for residential students to park.
Randy Seneff, Executive Director of Design and Construction for NSU said, “The parking garage is going to run from the parking lot just south of the CLC and run to the entrance of Commons on [Perimeter Road].”
But before these new structures can be constructed, the surface parking lots near these construction zones has been blocked off creating some problems for students who park on campus.
Alex Pulaski, sophomore biology major said, “While construction on campus doesn’t really affect me, the parking does. Since I’m a commuter, it really sucks that I can never have parking close to work or class. I’ll spend 10 minutes just parking since there aren’t any spots.”
Alfonso explained that most of the problems students are experiencing with parking is due to overflow from the residential students and the construction involving the new parking structure. To temporarily fix these problems NSU has opened up the top two floors of the West Parking Garage (located next to the NSU University School), the new Blacktop lot on SW 72 Avenue and the CLC residence lot for residential students. Rolling Hills students who park on campus during the day can use the top floor of the Alvin Sherman Library Parking Garage. In addition, commuter students can park in the Alvin Sherman Library Parking Garage and in the other lots designated for commuters.
As issues with parking continue, some students are considering parking in unauthorized areas.
As Rey Perez, sophomore business major said, “When Founders and the other overflow lots are filled there’s not much left to do except get the inevitable $40 parking ticket.” Students have resorted to parking on the grass, parallel parking on the sides of the lots and over yellow security lines as well parking in unauthorized lots.
Public Safety will begin issuing tickets to parking violators starting this week, as parking in these locations illegally can become a safety hazard to oncoming cars and emergency vehicles. But still, some students feel that these quick fixes aren’t enough.
“It’s nice that we have a new parking lot for residents but it isn’t enough for our current student population” said Ariella Poon, sophomore biology major.
The university hopes that the plans they have in place for some future projects can help with current complaints. Along with the new parking garage and residence hall they plan to add even more parking in front of the existing residence halls and add a driving lane between Leo Goodwin and Commons for easy accessibility.
“ [We will] gain about 100 parking spaces on the surface [parking] lot [in front of Leo Goodwin and Commons] and gain 1,300 spaces with the parking garage” said Seneff.
In addition to new parking spaces in front of the residence halls, the west side of CLC will have additional parking stalls estimated to be completed by Sept. 5. The surface lot on SW 72 Avenue will also be outfitted with access gates which should be installed and activated by mid-September to prevent unauthorized vehicles from entering the lot. For students commuting to Rolling Hills, they can use the alternative transportation the university provides to eliminate the issue of parking.
“We have a shuttle that brings [Rolling Hills students] from their apartments to the Shark Circle in front of the UC and it runs roughly every ten minutes [during the weekday]” said Alfonso.
The university is aware of the noise this type of construction produces and has a few plans in place to help those affected by these disturbances. The CLC, the closest building will have windows replaced on the south side of the building to help block out the noise.
”The CLC is one of the older buildings [on campus] so the south elevation will get hurricane-rated windows because they have much more sound attenuation.” said Seneff.
This project is still in the early stages but it is estimated to completed in the coming months as it will involve extensive planning from varied sources. Seneff said that this will be a project that will need Public Safety to notify the students and organized through The Office of Residential Life and Housing.
“We’re going to work as much as we can to minimize the inconvenience for the students and we ask that people bear with us as much as possible. Anytime there is any construction it’s not pleasant but we are going to do everything we can to respect the students and give them a good product for next year”. Sneff
As construction continues on campus, students are welcome to share any questions or concerns they have with The Office of Residential Life of Housing by contacting them at their email housing@nova.edu or by phone at (954) 262-7052.
