The constant presence of construction that students lived through last year will be even stronger this semester.
Major projects this fall include the Information Sciences and Technology Building, the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center, the Chemistry Building, the Life Sciences Building, the Eisenhower Parking Deck expansion and the Eastview Terrace dorm complex. West Campus housing, the MBNA Career Services Building and the HUB-Robeson Center Plaza were completed this summer.
"We want to provide the best education to the students of Pennsylvania, and to do that, you need up-to-date, modern facilities," said Paul Ruskin, Office of Physical Plant spokesman. "We want to give the students what they paid for."
Penn State is in the second year of a five-year, $769 million capital plan, he said. While students may be concerned that the new construction is related to this year's 13.5 percent tuition increase, Ruskin said this is not true and that most of the funding comes from outside donations.
"A lot of this construction is planned and financed way ahead of time," Ruskin said.
Two of the major projects, the Chemistry and the Life Sciences Buildings, will be connected with an overhead walkway spanning Shortlidge Road. The road is scheduled to be closed in late spring for work on the connecting section. Later, the street will be permanently closed and converted into a pedestrian mall.
Ruskin said the initial closure will allow officials to see if traffic patterns operate favorably.
"We would be optimistic and hopeful that well-researched plans will work as planned," Ruskin said.
Eva Pell, vice president of research and dean of the Graduate School, said the buildings' skyway acts as a meeting place for students and faculty.
"That bridge is for more than getting from one side to the other," she said.
Pell also said the new $45.9 million Life Sciences Building is needed.
"There certainly is a space crunch," Pell said of facilities for the Life Sciences Consortium. Most of the consortium's activities are currently housed in Wartik Building, which will still provide some space for what Pell said is rapidly developing genomics research.
Ruskin also emphasized the need for new buildings on campus.
"Space is always a critical issue on campus," Ruskin said. "There is rarely enough space to meet the needs of all the colleges."
Because of this, departments' former buildings will not lay dormant after they are vacated. The buildings will be renovated from the inside out to meet the needs of other departments, Ruskin said.
He said renovations to older buildings are not always as feasible as constructing a new building. Some older buildings are not capable of supporting Internet networks and high electricity usage and would need extensive renovations.
"It made more sense to go all the way and build the new buildings," he said.
Another major project, Eastview Terrace, will be the first dorm construction on campus in decades.
"It will add a very big aesthetic improvement," Ruskin said.
The $75 million complex will resemble West Halls, which many students consider the nicest-looking dorms, he added.
The IST Building construction will force the intermittent closing of Atherton Street, but closings only will be Sunday through Thursday evenings to minimize traffic impact, said IST project manager Anne Pernell. The road will be open Thursday evenings of football weekends.
"You can visually see that we've made quite a bit of progress," Pernell said of the new building that will span Atherton Street.
The construction will continue to increase in the spring with utility work beginning in Parking Lot 80 in preparation for the eventual construction of the east subcampus, which will include a new parking garage, food sciences building, University Creamery, forestry building and business building.
All projects are currently running on schedule, Ruskin said.
