Nearly $10 million in summer renovation projects underway at GRCC.
This summer there will be several renovation projects in progress at Grand Rapids Community College campuses.
The first project is construction at the DeVos Parking Lot. The ground level of the parking lot is being completely revamped and will include a walkway from the faculty and staff parking lot entrance on Prospect Avenue for students who are walking from GRCC’s Main Campus and will connect to the Welcome Center of the DeVos Campus sidewalk. There will also be an additional exit and entrance on Fulton Street which will include more parking for students. The estimated project cost is $1 million.
The GRCC Ford Fieldhouse will be receiving new additions to the fieldhouse side of the building which will be the final phase of the reconstruction project. It will include a welcome center, student seating, new locker rooms and facilities, a revamped cardio room with new workout machines and two additional classrooms for exercise science courses.
The fieldhouse will remain closed until January 2019. The walkways from the Lyon Street Ramp and Student Life Center to the Ford Fieldhouse will be closed for the summer as well. Last summer, a new roof was installed on the fieldhouse that cost $1 million. This final phase of construction will accommodate students better and make parts of the building more accessible. The total project cost is approximately $8 million.
“It is going to be a real spectacular showcase for the community to come in and see,” said Dave Murray, GRCC’s director of Communications. “it’s an important part of the college… that hosts so many community events that take place at that fieldhouse. “There will be a lot of visual elements that we are working on – historical murals, showing off not just the things that happen in that building, but… all the things that happen at this school.”
A minor project that will be going on this summer is the rebuilding of the library’s front entrance interior flooring. There will be a temporary entrance on the right side the fire exit for students throughout the duration of the construction. Also, the College Success Center, which is primarily located at DeVos Campus, will temporarily be located on the second floor of the library during the summer. The Exercise Science Department will be briefly located in the Science Building throughout this summer and continue there into the fall semester.
One project that has been underway for months is the reconstruction to Bostwick Ramp. This will be the third phase of the ongoing project. Currently, the entrance and exit from Fountain Street are closed and will reopen by this upcoming fall. Levels one, two and some parts of level three of Bostwick Ramp will be under construction. Students will be able to access Bostwick Ramp from Ransom Avenue. This project is expected to coast cost $350,000.
Adding to the list of projects that will benefit the safety of students, faculty and staff is the addition of devices that will allow all exterior doors of the campus buildings to be remotely and electronically secured. There are more than 400 exterior doors which will be wired to better secure the GRCC campus in case of a suspicious person on campus or other situations. The project will start this summer and continue into the fall. In addition to the devices, GRCC will install a key card access system that will allow students, faculty and staff access to GRCC buildings using their RaiderCard.
Bollards will be installed as barriers on both ends of Bostwick Commons to avoid cars from driving on the walkway. There will be a few retractable bollards for delivery trucks. The excavation process for this project will start in June. This will majorly affect the public due to there being areas where students can walk through Bostwick Commons without any worries. This project will cost an estimated $230,000.
“The money for all of these projects has come from college resources that we’ve been able to set aside in order to fund things like this we do every year,” said Vice President of Finance and Administration, Lisa Freiburger. “We not only need to maintain our campus but maintain our fiscal integrity and being able to save to fund things like this is important. We are happy to be able to have the ability to do that.”
