As early as next August, students on the Downtown campus could have a community center and student union-esque facilities in the Downtown Post Office.
The Joint Committee on Capital Review cleared the renovation plans at their Nov. 17 meeting, allowing construction to begin as soon as the design is finalized. Currently, Holly Street Studio is a little more than halfway through the design process.
The goal is to begin construction shortly after the new year and finish early in the fall 2012 semester.
The deadline “is tight, but doable,” said Dana Dixon, architect in the Office of the University Architect. “It’s not like we’re building a whole new structure.”
Plans from September call for about half of the post office to be renovated for student engagement, which includes conference rooms, classrooms, storage and lounge space.
“It’s really to create a community center of campus,” said Patrick Panetta, associate director of University Real Estate Development.
The construction currently near the post office is a City of Phoenix project to expand Civic Space Park. According to the September designs, the student engagement area of the post office is in the nearest corner of the building to the University Center and will open toward the expansion.
Panetta said it has been the plan to use the post office as a community center on campus since the building was bought a couple of years ago. It just took awhile to get a good design and funding.
While the post office renovations’ plans passed unanimously at the Joint Committee on Capital Review meeting, the Downtown SRC project was kept off of the JCCR’s agenda for the last meeting.
This setback will almost certainly delay starting construction of the Downtown SRC project.
Architects originally hoped to begin construction early next semester and finish no later than May 2013.
Co-chair of the JCCR Rep. John Kavanagh had an issue with the use of student fee money in the construction of the complex.
He said it isn’t fair to ask all students to pay a fee for a facility most students at ASU will never use.
“Times are tough. Students are having trouble paying for school, so why should we make all students pay for something only a few students will use?” Kavanagh said.
Kavanagh suggested only students who use the facility pay for the facility, similar to membership fees at the YMCA or Gold’s Gym.
But, President of the Downtown campus Joseph Grossman said this idea is flawed because the Downtown campus hasn’t built the complex yet.
There is no other way to get enough money to build the recreation facility without using student fee money, Grossman said, as there is no reason for private investors to pay for the building and the city doesn’t have the funds to give ASU enough money for the project.
“How do you expect then to get enough financing?” Grossman said. In “theory it sounds great, but realistically it’s not.”
The SRC plan will likely go before the JCCR after the new year, possibly with a new payment plan that will combine the student fee money with a membership fee.
The post office will also use student fee money for its construction, but Kavanagh said the difference between the two funding-wise is the number of students who will use the student engagement area in the post office and what a university really needs in tough economic times.
A community center “is a legitimate part of the university experience. A fitness center is not,” Kavanagh said.
Contact the reporter at connor.radnovich@asu.edu
