Templeton teardown in LC’s future

Bad news for those anticipating à la carte: LC announced there will be no changes in Templeton over the summer, following a cost-benefit analysis showing that constructing new buildings over the next decades would be a better idea.

It is no longer economical to try to renovate Templeton. The Board of Trustees, at its recent meeting, decided that instead of renovating the 50-year-old building, an entirely new campus center will be built.

The decision came as a result of the recommendations and findings by the Templeton Task Force. After seeing the $6 million price tag of the planned Fields Dining Room renovation, which was to take place this upcoming summer, the Board created the Task Force to examine the matter. The Task Force hired different firms to create rough plans and approximate costs for both a renovation of the current student center and the building of a new one.

The Task Force was comprised of three trustees: Dean of Students Houston Dougharty, Associate Vice President for Facilities Richard Battega, Vice President for Business and Finance Carl Vance, and ASLC Vice President for Budget and Finance Angela Finke (’08).

Two proposals were put forth for the renovation of Templeton, both priced at about $24 million, and although they would have made significant improvements, they did not adequately address all of the problems of the current space, said Vance, who cited specifically improving student hang-out space. “The best case scenario for renovating still is crap,” said Finke. “It doesn’t meet the needs of everyone.”

The estimate for a new campus center was $34 million. The architectural firm came up with two options for new construction, said Vance. The first would tear down Akin Hall and build a campus center on that location, stretching across what is currently the SOA lawn. The second plan, which was not recommended by the task force, would involve building a new campus center in the current parking lot of Templeton, and then tearing down Templeton and expanding in a multi-phase process.

After seeing all the options, the task force decided that renovating “a 50-year old building was not an optimal long-term solution,” said Vance. Thus the Templeton task force came to the unanimous decision that building anew--specifically on the Akin location--would be the best idea. Then, at the Board of Trustees’ February meeting, a resolution was passed to engage the “building new” proposal.

Currently, an architectural firm is working to create more detailed plans and estimates for a new student center. The architectural firm, Thomas Hacker Architects, inc., is the same firm that built JR Howard Hall and Miller, as well as the Watzek Library renovations.

Plans for a new building are still uncertain. “There is no timeline,” said Vance. He described the process that will start with more detailed plans. Once the architectural firm makes the detailed plans, the project will be included in next year’s new capital campaign. The future of the plan will depend on the amount of money that is raised, and how quickly.

“It really depends on fund-raising efforts,” said Finke. “We need to raise the money before we start building.” She approximated that the new campus center would not be complete for about 10-15 years, and “at this point, it is hard to say what will happen in Templeton in that time.”

No plans are currently in motion for concrete improvements to the campus center space. The plan to renovate Fields into an à la carte dining system is currently “on pause,” said Finke, although she assured that it is “not off the table.” The cost of renovating Fields—even minimally—to accommodate an à la carte system would be around $590,000, and would not be able to include everything, said Vance. The current plan is to wait on Fields and to assure that the investment would be reusable.

This news comes after a long build-up, especially from the Campus Living community. Finke said that the disappointment was not intentional, but “really was an unexpected situation.”