After several delays, the HUB lawn redesign, which will include a terrace facing downtown used for public speaking and small concert events, is scheduled to be completed by summer 2008.

The redesign is a multi-phased project involving improving lighting and sidewalks, landscaping the 3.3-acre lawn, redoing the drainage and irrigation systems as well as constructing the terrace.

The terrace, which will be 30 by 80 feet, plans to serve as a dual function of providing more student seating outdoors, as well as including an area for public speaking and musical performances, Chad Spackman, project manager at Office of Physical Plant (OPP), said.

Currently, a mobile stage has to be trucked in for events, he added. The new terrace will likely provide a venue for the HUB lawn's biggest event, Movin' On, which has drawn acts in the past such as Talib Kweli and Fall Out Boy, Director of Unions and Student Activities Stan Latta said.

When the project was proposed in 2005, some residents were concerned about the noise level because the stage will be facing downtown. The State College Borough Council eventually gave the university a noise waiver for six amplified events a year, but the policy will be reviewed annually, Latta said.

For any event with amplified sound to occur, it will have to be sponsored by the Office of Student Activities.

The university has not received any complaints about the project since borough council approved the noise waiver request, Annemarie Mountz, Penn State spokeswoman, said.

A study was conducted to determine not only how loud events on the terrace will be but also how far the sound will travel, Latta said.

"We took measurements throughout the community to get a sense of how loud it can be up here [on the terrace] without negatively affecting residents on Beaver Avenue," he said.

Water drainage problems, which have caused OPP to reseed the lawn several times in the past several years, will also be addressed in the project, Paul Ruskin, spokesman for OPP, said.

"We've had a problem with water drainage, causing the lower half of the lawn to turn into a muddy field when you have a lot of student activity," Ruskin said.

Walkways will be improved and added to the lawn as well, Spackman said.

The redesigning of the HUB lawn was delayed primarily to save money. Construction was originally supposed to begin in the fall 2006 semester. However, the university decided it was more cost-effective to wait until after the new Life Sciences Building, which will be located behind the current Life Sciences Building, is built. Rather than pay a contractor to purchase dirt for the lawn and another contractor to remove dirt from the new Life Sciences Building construction, OPP will use the dirt from the Life Sciences Building project for the HUB lawn redesign, Mountz said.

"We need to use a bunch of dirt to do the HUB lawn project, and they will be creating mounds of dirt when they dig out [the new Life Sciences Building]." Mountz said.

Timing also hindered completion of the project since OPP has other projects occurring this summer, many of which involve road closures, Ruskin said.

Some students believe that redesigning the HUB lawn is a good idea.

"It's not necessary, but I guess positive things could come from it," Julie Spiker (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said. "I think it'd be nice to have daytime events, especially when the weather's nice."

Erin Marynak (junior-economics) thought that the new terrace would be good for some events.

I think it'd be good for Movin' On," she said. "I like that its open -- it's nice in the summer."

Jesse Hall (junior-supply chain and information systems) said as long as there was only a little bit of change, the construction would be OK.

"It's nice so they don't have to build something every time [there's an event]," he said. "Too much will just ruin it."