The University is embarking on a new era of construction that will transform the area between the DeBartolo Quad and West Quad and the area surrounding Stepan Center.

This new construction will include a new engineering building, an expanded law school, a new hotel and new buildings for the Notre Dame Security/Police department and the on-campus post office.

Unlike the rapid construction of the last decade fueled by the Generations campaign, such as the new Notre Dame Bookstore and the Coleman-Morse Center, the current economic downturn may affect the timetable in which these projects are completed. All of the projects are currently pending as the University solicits funding for the projects, which are more expensive than recent projects. The cost of both the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering Research and Learning and the law school expansion is projected to be $56 million each, compared to the Coleman-Morse's final cost of $14 million.

"The timing depends on funding. We are looking forward to begin [construction] when funding permits … our giving has slowed down from previous years, but not dramatically. I hope our benefactors will continue to be supportive," said University Executive Vice-President Father Timothy Scully.

In addition to these projects that are pending funding, the University has funding for a new Science Teaching Facility and has commissioned a study of parking and road infrastructure on and around the campus.

Engineering Building

The 150,000 square foot Multi-Disciplinary Engineering Research and Learning Center will be located at the current site of the University Club, a private dining facility adjacent to the post office and McKenna Hall.

The facility will contain a commons area, a large learning center, a nanotechnology laboratory and a materials synthesis laboratory. The facility will emphasize interactive learning with hands-on projects that incorporate the curriculum of more than one engineering discipline.

Currently, plans do not call for the facility to be connected to the Cushing and Fitzpatrick Halls of Engineering. These buildings will continue to be used by the College of Engineering after construction is completed.

According to Scully, University President Father Edward Malloy has convened a committee to decide if the University Club will be replaced, moved to a new site or eliminated. As a part of this decision, the exact mission of the current club will be studied.

Law School

An expansion to the current law school will double the amount of space from 100,000 square feet to 200,000. A wing in gothic design will span the current walkway to the site of the post office where a new structure will be built to house classroom and office facilities. The current law school will be completely gutted and will house the Law School's library.

Hotel

The new hotel, called the Notre Dame Inn, will be built on the site of the current Security Building and will contain 220 rooms, conferencing facilities and dining facilities. The building will face Saint Mary's lake with a view of the Dome and the Basilica.

Because the building will generate revenue, funding for the at-least $50-million building will be slightly different from the Law School and Engineering Building.

"Our aspiration is that a large part of the money will be raised in private donations. My goal is to cover the capital with gifts and to use the revenue to keep tuition down…we are looking for naming opportunities of facilities within the inn," said Scully.

The fate of the Morris Inn, the current on-campus hotel, and McKenna Hall, the university's conference center, is unknown. While the Notre Dame Inn will contain conference facilities, it is unknown if it will be able to accommodate all conferences.

Related construction

By the time the current post office and Security Building are demolished for new construction, these departments will be moved into a new complex near Stepan Center, at the current site of the basketball courts and a parking lot.

"There is a need to complete this new facility prior to beginning site work for the Notre Dame Inn. This new facility is intended to be home for the long term for these two functions [the post office and Security] so we have explored future needs as well as current deficiencies to provide adequate space for current functions as well as to provide for growth and change," said Craig Tiller, a project manager in the Office of the University Architect.

Like the current post office, the new facility will be owned by the University and leased by the postal service. It will be designed using standards provided by the postal service.

The new complex will require that the Stepan basketball courts be moved behind the center, in the area between Stepan Center and Douglas Road.

Science Teaching Facility

One of the final construction projects funded by the Generations campaign, the Science Teaching Facility, will be built at the site of the parking lot in front of Rolfs Sports Recreation Center and will free up space in Nieuwland Science Hall for faculty and student research. Construction is scheduled to begin in 18 months and will take two years to complete.

The $70-million, 202,000-square-foot building will contain two 275-seat lecture halls, one 150-seat multimedia visualization lecture hall, one 40-seat classroom, 40 teaching labs, a greenhouse, a herbarium and a museum component. All classrooms in Nieuwland will continue to be used, but all teaching labs will be moved to the new facility.

"Space that is vacated in the move to the new facility will be occupied for various uses. The majority will be outfitted as research labs and offices for the different sciences," said Tiller.

Parking and road infrastructure

To accommodate for the parking absorbed in constructing new facilities and to improve the current parking and traffic situation that Scully described as sub optimal, the University has contracted a parking and traffic consultant to study the situation.

"The philosophy we have is to try to maintain Notre Dame as much of a pedestrian campus as we can," said Scully.

One of the goals of the consulting firm is to make the parking lots fit in more with the architecture of the campus and find more parking spaces, while avoiding parking garages.

"We have a bucolic, environmentally sensitive campus and I want to provide parking that is not as massive as it is now. The lots have no interruptions with trees [or other landscaping] and it looks like urban plight. We need to make it look nice," said Scully.

The firm is also studying pedestrian safety, especially as the amount of facilities the University has on the other side of Juniper Road continues to grow.

"Our goal is to provide for the safety of students. As a means to that goal we have to examine traffic patterns … we're going to have a student fatality if we're not careful," said Scully.

Once the firm finishes its analysis, the University will have to provide additional parking before construction can begin on the Science Teaching Facility and the complex for the post office and Security.

Entrance

The University is also considering improving the entrance to the campus. Currently, the only landscaping at the entrance to campus is a large mound with a flowering ND, but Scully said this landscaping is "embarrassing, grungy and pathetic" and will be destroyed in the construction of the Marie P. DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts.

"Our entrance is so sad, so pathetic for a University that claims to be the premier Catholic university in the country and one of the top schools in the nation," said Scully.

Scully said that a new entrance would be a stronger priority in "the golden era of the 90s" but is not as large of a priority with the current recession.

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