New buildings emerge on southern side of campus
Graphic and photo by Ruthie Martin
With The Forum and new business buildings under construction, the southern end of the Lee University’s campus is undergoing a massive makeover.
Fences now surround the site of The Forum on Church Street and the future home of the business department, which is connected to Pangle Hall.
While exact completion dates are not yet known, passersby can expect to see major progress on the buildings within the next month as the university prepares for its Celebration event on Sept. 30, according to Cole Strong, Assistant Vice President for Operations.
“For Celebration, we want as much work to be completed so you get the big picture of how the south campus is set up,” Strong said. “We hope to continue to make good progress going into the Fall, through Celebration, through homecoming.”
The Forum, a future gathering space, currently has a steel skeleton with developing arches at the base, while the business building’s exterior has been joined with the backside of Pangle Hall.
“If you drive by [The Forum] you can see they’re laying the block for these arches, and so you’ll be able to get a better visual of what it will look like from all sides,” he said. “We’re also working towards completing the front exterior [of the business building], and then we will start to turn our attention to the interior and set up a later timetable of when [that] will be complete.”
As workers were completing the nursing building and began the two new projects, parts of Parker, Trunk, 5th and 6th streets were closed, but there are currently no roadblocks that would prevent travel through campus.
“We worked with the city and [they] closed down about six blocks of city streets, which aren’t accessible anymore,” Strong said. “You wouldn’t notice those roads ever existed because the road has been torn out, dirt’s been put over [it], or another portion of the project has taken over that area.”
South campus development began with the construction of the Communication Arts building in 2014, the dedication of Pangle Hall that same year, and, most recently, the opening of the School of Nursing’s building on August 24.
Strong said that campus traffic has adjusted to the detours and site work, though he does not foresee any more road closures this semester.
