Renovations to the student center are only a small aspect of the construction changes occurring at Lipscomb this summer.
Tom Wood, director of campus enhancement, said the university will be spending about $11 million on new construction and renovations to existing areas.
The list of construction and renovation work includes moving the bookstore and Uncle Dave’s to the lower level of the student center, developing a lounge area and installing a Zebis deli and Auntie Anne’s pretzels in the current bookstore space, updating McFarland by painting and furnishing the lobby and creating a “dean’s suite,” adding air conditioning in the SAC and McQuiddy gyms, creating office spaces in the basement of Burton, finishing the Cool Springs campus, installing a new track for the high school and university track teams, adding an academic resource center in the library basement and completing the nursing building.
Wood said the bookstore will move to the Arlo’s location on the lower level of the student center, creating additional food service space in the current book store area. Wood said the new set up will have Auntie Anne’s and Zebis and a more private eating/lounge space.
“It offers some additional food service area,” he said. “I think a lot of students have said they would like a place that is semi-private where they can have some booths and things like that where they can have a little bit of privacy instead of being out in the middle of a room some place.”
In the next year or so, Wood said the university plans to extend the Starbucks porch area around the rest of the building.
“Eventually we hope to wrap the patio around the side,” he said, “so you can have access out the side door for outside eating and relaxing out there later on.”
Moving the bookstore, according to Wood, will be a better way to utilize the public space on the main floor.
Wood said he has spoken with officials at other universities about developing an academic resource center, and those schools have applauded Lipscomb’s efforts.
“A lot of other universities around are envious of what we’re going to have there,” he said.
The resource center, which would be in the basement of Beaman library, would offer students a place to receive assistance with their class work, if needed.
“It’s going to be a fun and exciting, and, we hope, very attractive place to go and get with mentors or just have private study areas,” Wood said. “That’s something that’s important for us that we haven’t really had in the past.”
plans for Cool Springs campus
Wood said the Cool Springs campus, referred to as Spark, will be finished this summer, enhancing the opportunities that Lipscomb provides to the surrounding community.
“Spark enhances our graduate programs. It’s an outreach to the community,” Wood said. “They can have community events down there, seminars, things like that if corporations want to use it. It reaches out to those folks. Someone that may not want to come to Nashville to school but can accommodate their needs much closer to home, so I think that’s a real advantage to us there. ”
Wood said the new air conditioning in the gyms inside the Student Activities Center and McQuiddy will enable students to “enjoy those areas with some comfort they don’t now have.”
A new track is the first step in a process to fulfill NCAA regulations that would allow Lipscomb to host university track meets, Wood said, so it will be installed at the high school football field this summer.
The nursing building should be completed by Aug. 1, Wood said.
“The nursing building is to look to the future for our nursing program and to accommodate our needs in that area, which are growing very quickly,” he said. “We’re anticipating a much larger nursing program over the years.”
In an effort to help with parking, the university also intends to add parking areas to the north side of campus near the nursing facility. Wood said the administration has a long-term plan to build another parking garage, but that will be farther into the future.
plans for Bison Square Fountain
Wood said the university also might begin the Bison Square fountain project this summer, which would remove old planters from the square and replace them with a fountain/baptistery. The square renovation project will take three or four months, Wood said, adding that part of the area will be fenced off while changes are being made.
“Bison Square fountain, of course, is just an aesthetic thing,” he said. “It also serves as a baptistery, so that we don’t have to use horse troughs for baptisms anymore. We’re very excited about that. We think it will be a great aesthetic thing for the center of our campus.”
Wood said he expects construction on the new pharmacy building to start in September or October.