UC Invests $367 Million in Academic Facilities

In recent weeks the University of Cincinnati has begun work on Scioto Hall renovation – the latest construction project in more than $367 million the university has invested in new and refurbished academic facilities in the past two years.

This investment in academic facilities reaches beyond the university’s Creating Our Third Century allocations that are planned and underway this fiscal year. In phase one of Third Century implementation, support totaling over $13 million has been targeted for new faculty hires, dual career assistance for faculty, expanded student recruitment in Washington D.C. and other urban markets, faculty development of study abroad programs, enhancing the university’s research enterprise, and more. While the key goals of the Third Century are to strengthen the university’s academic core and invest in people, including faculty, students, staff and alumni, world-class facilities are also are vital components of attracting and retaining the best and brightest in all of those target populations.

The following highlights several of the major academic facilities investments over the last two years:

Academic Health Center Renovations and Design

A total of $37 million is being allocated for renovations to portions of the Health Professions Building (HPB), replacing Wherry Hall and relocating the Radiation Safety Building, all on the Academic Health Center campus.

• $27 million plus an addition $8 million from the state capital budget will be used to renovate HPB, which originally opened in 1918 and is the oldest medical campus building. Work will begin in spring 2015 when the colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine labs and offices begin moving from the north wing of HPB into the Medical Sciences Building. Then renovations will begin in fall 2015 on the north wing and on restoring a former auditorium to its original use. New laboratories

• $5 million will fund design costs for a building to replace Wherry Hall. Occupants of Wherry Hall are expected to begin moving out in fall 2016 into the renovated north wing of HPB. Construction on the replacement for Wherry is expected to begin in fall 2017.

• $5 million will be used to demolish the current Radiation Safety Building and build its replacement.

Work is expected to begin in spring 2015 on a renovating portions of the  Health Professions Building, one of the oldest buildings on the Academic Health Center campus.

Scioto Hall

The $35 million renovation of Scioto Hall began this fall with an expected completion date of fall 2016. The high-rise residence hall, near the corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Jefferson Avenue, has been unused since 2008 and is on its way to becoming an eco-friendly, glass-enclosed structure that will resemble its next-door neighbor, Morgens Hall, which reopened in fall 2013.

Scioto has remained unused since 2008 , but when renovations are complete, It will feature 450 beds in about 140 apartment-style suites. Additional student housing is in high demand as a result of the university’s increased enrollment, which stands at its highest level in history at 43,691.

In all, 2,000 glass panels made of two quarter-inch thick windows, separated by a half-inch of air space, will create the façade in a way that prevents heat loss or heat gain. The current concrete and brick structure dates back to 1964. The refurbished Scioto is expected to be LEED-certificated. Currently there are seven major buildings at UC that have LEED Gold, LEED Silver or LEED certification, which is a designation that relates to energy efficiency and sustainable design.

Blue Ash Building

The $5.8 structure will provide new classrooms, faculty offices and a multi-purpose area for events and instruction.  In the short-run it will be used as swing space to accommodate the renovation of Muntz Hall. The new building is expected to b complete by fall 2017.

Mid-Rise Building

To be built on the site of the former Sawyer Hall high-rise, the new building will house additional food service facilities, community spaces, offices, and possibly some housing. Now in the design phase, the $20 million project is expected to be complete by spring 2017.

Dyer Hall/Teachers Hall

Phase Three of a project to renovate Teachers/Dyer has been underway since fall 2014. This refurbishment of the Teachers College Addition and Dyer Hall, first built in 1931 and joined to Teachers in 1957, is improving the facilities’ core systems as well as adding a two-story atrium that will serve as a new main entrance into Dyer. While the work will result in more natural light in the structure, the $45 million project will also add five more classrooms for a total of 10, a 120-seat auditorium, two new elevators, a coffee shop, digital and multimedia equipment in all classrooms, a science lab, new bathrooms, new conference rooms with video conferencing, an outdoor classroom in the courtyard, a video studio, and a new meeting and conference room named for former dean and education pioneer Elizabeth Dyer. Completion is anticipated in summer 2016.