Construction to begin on campus

By John Caldwell
Daily Forty-Niner

Several large-scale construction and renovation projects are underway or about to start at Cal State Long Beach, in addition to the renovation of the Fine Arts buildings.

A 90,000 sq. ft. science building is slated for construction on a site just north of Peterson Hall 3. The project will cost between $25 and $28 million and will take two years to complete. Physical Planning is expecting a bid on the project by December or January, with construction to begin about a month later.

"It's going to be a very intensive laboratory building," said Scott Charmack, associate vice president of Physical Planning and Facilities Management. "We're looking forward to having it done."

The design of the new building won an award from the American Institute of Architects, Charmack said. It will house 49 offices and numerous laboratories and support facilities with proper ventilation and modern amenities, but no lecture rooms.

"In terms of longer-range plans, we still have to do something with the other science buildings," Charmack said. "We've had requests to do a renovation."

The new building is the first phase in a plan to overhaul the science education facilities at CSULB. The old Peterson Hall buildings were built in the '50s and '60s, Charmack said. A plan to upgrade the facilities has been in the works since 1991.

Upon its completion, operations from one of the other buildings will move into the new building, Charmack said. A plan to either renovate or replace the old buildings has not yet been finalized.

An upgrade of the fire alarm system is also underway. The $3 million project will bring all the fire alarms at CSULB up to current code standards. Most of the work will be done at night, Charmack said.

Another large project in the planning stage is a complete overhaul of telecommunications services at CSULB, he said.

The $15 million project will provide additional capacity for data and phones. New conduit and distribution systems will be installed and every room on campus will have high-speed connection to the Internet.

"Our campus has done a remarkable job in expanding," Charmack said. "But they have had limited resources to work with."

The telecommunications project should begin late next year, after a lengthy planning and development stage is completed.