The future East Sub-Campus -- current site of Parking Lot 80 -- moved a step closer to becoming a reality last Friday, as the Penn State Board of Trustees approved sketches for two of the four buildings to go up on the site.

The new four-story Business and School of Forest Resources buildings will frame a semi-circular meadow facing Park Avenue, according to preliminary plans outlined by Gordon Turow, director of campus planning and design.

Turow said the north half of the campus block bounded by Bigler and Shortlidge roads will form "a new campus gateway," and the expanse of lawn will provide a connection to the proposed arboretum across Park Avenue.

The other two buildings also in the pipeline for East Sub-Campus are a parking deck and a building for the Department of Food Science with a new creamery.

During their meeting at the Hershey Medical Center last week, trustees also gave the final go-ahead for expanding and renovating Redifer Commons in South Halls.

The 20,000-square-foot addition, to be built between Ewing and Lyons halls, will double the number of seats in the commons to 760.

Penn State intends the $7.8 million project -- marked for completion by August 2004 -- to accommodate an influx of students from the new Eastview Terrace housing complex. Construction work at Redifer could begin as soon as next month, Turow said.

Gary Cramer, university spokesman, said the Smeal College of Business Administration and the College of Agricultural Sciences' School of Forest Resources each wanted a more modern building to consolidate their scattered departments and classrooms.

"That's the trend with a lot of these new buildings going up," Cramer said.

Sited at the corner of Shortlidge Road and Park Avenue, the Business building will feature two wings devoted to the undergraduate and graduate programs, linked by a four-story glass atrium overlooking the meadow.

Crews will begin demolishing Mitchell Building in a few months to make way for the new 210,000-square-foot project.

Across the planned lawn to the east, on Bigler Road, the School of Forest Resources Building will consist of two smaller brick-covered wings connected by an atrium.

The building would be the second on campus to meet national LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, after the planned School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture building.

In a separate update to trustees, Associate Vice President for the Office of Physical Plant Bill Anderson said the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center -- the major new addition to Eisenhower Chapel -- is about 90 percent complete and will be ready by May 2.

Office of Physical Plant officials had previously announced a March completion date.