Fall Term Opens with Updated Buildings, Technology

Extensive renovations to Johnson, Bostwick and Kitchin residence halls and other facilities were among summer improvements to the Reynolda campus.

Classrooms and residence halls also received technical upgrades for the start of the Plan for the Class of 2000, gatehouses went up at two of the three campus entrances and construction began on new athletic complexes.

Johnson, Bostwick and Kitchin received air conditioning systems and computer wiring, repainting and flooring, continuing the university’s use of summer breaks to add air conditioning to older residence halls built without it.

The university has also been expanding its ability to supply air conditioning to more residential buildings. One chiller plant was recently expanded with another to be built this fall. The plants generate cold water for the air conditioning system.

Computer-related renovations provided the fastest and most reliable connections to the campus network from classroom desks or residence halls. Classrooms receiving computer- related renovations in high-speed computer wiring or multimedia upgrades included Tribble Hall, Olin Physical Laboratory, Salem Hall and Carswell Hall.

Tribble’s top-to-bottom renovations included repainting, reflooring, new furnishings and multimedia upgrades to 28 classrooms. Also getting technological upgrades to make them among the most technologically advanced classrooms were Salem 10 and the Annenberg Forum in Carswell Hall. The largest construction project on campus is the new W. Dennie Spry Soccer Stadium on Polo Road. The stadium seats 3,000 and features a playing field and two practice fields. It is expected to be open in time for a Sept. 22 game on Family Weekend.

Crews tore down Bridger Field House at the south end of Groves Stadium to make way for a new, three-story field house. When open next summer, the field house will feature locker and training rooms, banquet and meeting space, offices and the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame.

A new 64,000-square-foot indoor tennis center is planned next to the field house and will replace the indoor tennis center on campus. The new center will feature at least six tennis courts, locker rooms, a training room and offices for the coaches of the men’s and women’s tennis teams. Still in design, the center may be completed by late spring or early summer.

As part of a comprehensive plan to bolster campus security, new gatehouses were built at the Reynolda Road and University Parkway entrances to campus. University Police personnel will staff the houses from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. seven days a week. A new gate will close access to the Polo Road entrance during those hours.

In other construction projects:

• A brick and concrete stage for special events was built at the northern end of the Magnolia Courtyard on the site routinely used by the Student Union and several other student organizations for concerts and other activities.
• Over 100 new parking spaces were added by expanding Lot W off Wingate Road, adding gravel spaces behind the Worrell Professional Building and making two extensions of Lot Q behind the Scales Fine Arts Center. Still to be built are new parking lots near the Palmer and Piccolo residence halls and the new soccer stadium that will add another 240 parking spaces. Grading will begin this fall on the new lots, with the addition of the new base and grading scheduled to be completed by year’s end. The new lots won’t be paved for about a year.