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This content was published: January 25, 2012. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.

Bond program making a big difference at Sylvania Campus

Story by James Hill. Photo by Kate Chester.

The Sylvania Campus bond planning is in full force and the bunker-style and “brutalist” architecture you see with most of the buildings there will be getting much-needed facelifts. And most will have a “green” touch so they are better at saving cost and energy.

Gary Sutton, Sylvania’s bond program manager, shows off the newly renovated photography lab which includes a spinning door to the dark room.

Gary Sutton, Sylvania’s bond program manager, shows off the newly renovated photography lab which includes a spinning door to the dark room.

“Our campus is old and in need of a considerable amount of updates,” said Linda Gerber, president of the Sylvania Campus. “The design and construction work under way at Sylvania protects the community’s public assets, at the same time it will bring the academic and student services needs in line with current standards and practices.”

The bond program will add about $52 million worth of construction work into Sylvania to renovate 160,000 square feet of classroom, laboratory and office space, as well as build a new childcare development center and a storage facility for the automotive building.

“The largest project will be modernizing nearly 75 percent of the College Center building – which equals about 120,000 square feet – transforming it into an accessible, easy-to-navigate student union,” said Gary Sutton, the bond project manager for Sylvania.

Read about what will happen from author Kate Chester and find out what has been going on in planning for construction at the Sylvania Campus.

One great project already finished was the renovation of the CT Building’s photography labs with state-of-the-art technology.

And there was a think tank assembled in December to conduct a visioning session about the future Childhood Development Center, another great bond project.