CAC ready to build, renovate
Saturday, October 23, 2010 11:20 AM MST
Susan Randall, Staff Writer
Casa Grande Dispatch—TriValleyCentral.com
SIGNAL PEAK—Central Arizona College is ready to use bond money for construction and renovations on its campuses. Voters approved the $98.9 million bond issue in November 2008. Construction on two new campuses will begin later.
Chris Wodka, CAC’s vice president of finance and administration, told the board on Tuesday that the first groundbreaking for new construction will be Nov. 16 at the Superstition Mountain Campus in Apache Junction. Renovations on the Signal Peak Campus will start in January. Renovations on the Aravaipa Campus in Winkelman will start in January or February.
Land for a new Maricopa Campus has just been purchased. The design process will take at least a year, Wodka said. The college district also is looking at three possible sites for a campus in San Tan Valley.
Signal Peak Wodka said O’Neil Administration Hall and the Wakefield Center for Health and Home on the Signal Peak Campus will be gutted and rebuilt.
Placement testing in the Student Services Center will be moved to the Interactive Learning Center. The college transfer center will move to the Student Services Center.
Forty-year-old infrastructure in the Pence Center for the Visual and Performing Arts will be updated, and its lobby, restrooms and control room will be remodeled to bring the building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The theater will be reshaped acoustically. Seating will be reduced from 750 to 526.
“They feel that will be better than having a half-empty house for performances,” said John Williams, project manager for the architectural firm Architekton, which is designing the renovations on the Signal Peak and Aravaipa campuses.
He expects the makeover of the Pence Center to take one year to complete.
Existing parking lots at the Signal Peak Campus will be repainted with 90-degree parking spaces to gain 70 new spaces (998 total). More parking will be added on the south (305 spaces) and north (120 spaces) ends of the campus.
In addition, Wodka said, Architekton will survey all the buildings on the Signal Peak Campus to identify any issues that may exist with the buildings’ “envelopes,” interior finishes, ADA compliance, mechanical, electrical or plumbing systems.
“So if anything is discovered in any of these other buildings,” he said, “they can be brought forward as well when we are going through the renovation work.”
Joe Salvatore, Architekton’s principal architect who is doing the surveys on the Signal Peak Campus, said he hopes to be finished in a couple of weeks.
“One of the other things we are looking at,” Williams said, “is where does everybody go when we’re demolishing and reworking the space? In the next couple of weeks we’re going to be putting that plan in place for relocation during construction.”
Superstition Mountain Jim Richärd of richärd+bauer architecture said the two new buildings on the Superstition Mountain Campus in Apache Junction will total 43,000 square feet and be connected by a bridge-like structure that spans one of the campus’ three washes to provide views of the Superstition Mountains. The new buildings will house a community room, student services, the computer commons, the library, the bookstore, a cafe, faculty offices, lounges, classrooms, a laboratory, meeting spaces, a patio and plaza.
The buildings will be connected by a grassy mall to the existing buildings, which will be renovated. The changes will add 17 new instructional spaces to the campus.
A new central facilities plant will replace the existing plant “which is barely hanging on,” Richärd said. The new plant should be operational by April. The new buildings should be finished in May 2012 and the renovations by November 2012. The main entrance will be moved to Idaho Road.
“I’m just glad it’s getting started,” said board member Linda Yarrington, who represents northern Pinal County.
Other campuses In Maricopa, the college purchased 217 acres for a new campus. Escrow is expected to close Nov. 17. Three agreements are being negotiated: a development agreement with the city of Maricopa, an agreement with Global Water Resources for water and sewer services and a joint development agreement with the Ak-Chin Indian Community and San Travasa LLC.
CAC President Dennis Jenkins said the agreement will determine how 600 acres in the Maricopa area, including CAC’s new site, will be developed.
At the Aravaipa Campus in Winkelman, the interior of the building that contains the interactive television and computer classrooms will be demolished, rebuilt and expanded. The interior of the student center and cafeteria will be demolished, rebuilt and expanded to house a student union. The library will be remodeled. A testing area will be added and student services offices will be created. The former student services building will become faculty offices and classrooms.
In related business, Doris Helmich, vice president for student services, said CAC’s 45-day enrollment this year was 6.4 percent higher than on last year’s 45th day, when measured by full-time student equivalencies (total enrollment divided by 15 credit hours, a full load). It was 4.7 percent higher when measured by head count.
“We did hit 7,000 for the first time,” she said, “7,119 for our head count, up from 6,800 in the fall of 2009.”
It was also the first year that CAC lost enrollment between the first day and the 45th day, Helmich said, about 191 FTSE. Most losses were in online and hybrid online/face-to-face classes. Staff is investigating to see if something needs to be changed.
Please see the following link to view the full press release here: http://trivalleycentral.com/articles/2010/10/23/casa_grande_dispatch/top_stories/doc4cb9dea03a444758687171.txt