Library construction is on track to meet the “ambitious” opening timeline of fall 2024, according to Sarah Visser, Executive Vice President for Student Experience and Strategy. Demolition is set to be completed later in November, Visser told Chimes.
After demolition, renovations will include the construction of internal offices, the central staircase and a hallway between the 200 level of the library and the lowest level of Hiemenga Hall.
Calvin’s Video Production teams and studio spaces, as well as the AV Department, used to reside in the lower level of Heimenga. Initial construction necessary to transfer the Video Production team to DeVos has been completed — “over the summer, the team worked hard to lay miles of fiber optic cable, effectively re-wiring campus so that the new hub for livestream and video broadcasting now funnels through DeVos rather than the lower level of Hiemenga Hall,” Visser told Chimes.
This fall, teams have been designing permanent office spaces and studio production spaces while renovating current student classrooms and gathering spaces in the lower level of DeVos.
The first set of renovations allowing the initial relocation of the Speech Pathology and Audiology (SPAUD) Clinic to North Hall has been completed since last spring. The second set of renovations for the School of Health — SPAUD classroom, office construction and the relocation of Science Division department offices — finished earlier this fall.
Demolition in the lower level of DeVries Hall — which “will begin immediately following the end of first semester exams and construction will commence in mid-January” — will initiate phases two and three of the School of Health project. These phases include the creation of a cadaver lab, a virtual simulation lab and additional classroom space, and are due to be completed by mid-summer of 2024, according to Visser.
Finally, the new track in Gainey Field is completed. According to Visser, the next steps in athletics construction will “begin in earnest in the coming weeks.” These steps include “construction on both the soccer stadium (west of the new turf soccer field) and the building to the north of the turf field, which will house football (locker rooms, etc.) as well as Athletic Training facilities for all of Calvin’s outdoor athletics programs,” Visser said.
A number of projects are on track to be completed in the fall of 2024.
