By MICHAEL WARD
As students stroll through campus this semester, they are going to have more places to stroll. Construction around the university has been booming over the last two years, but most projects will be wrapping up in the next year.
University Construction Director Mike Stratton said the new addition to the Harold B. Lee Library will be finished in July 1999.
“Right now (the library addition) is between 60 and 70 percent complete,” Stratton said.
The outside of the library addition will be partially finished within the semester, Stratton said. A diagonal sidewalk over the library will be available for student use by “the time the snow falls.”
“We know we’re not going to make it before school starts, but we hope to make it before the weather shuts us down over there on the landscaping and concrete work,” Stratton said. “I would say that’s around the end of October.”
The diagonal sidewalk will run from the northwest corner of the Harris Fine Arts Center, across the library addition to the southeast corner of the Jesse Knight Humanities Building.
Stratton said the big hole between the Harris Fine Arts Center and the Wilkinson Student Center will remain unfilled until next Spring.
While some BYU students say the construction zones are inconveniences, others say the university will benefit from the renovation.
Craig Rydalch, 22, a junior from Idaho Falls majoring in management information systems says the campus renovation benefits the students.
“It shows the school is growing, improving and expanding,” Rydalch said. “It’s cool to see that the administration is going all out to make sure the university has top-class facilities.”
Students can expect construction detours in the BYU Bookstore until April 1999, Stratton said. Textbooks are back on the third floor of the bookstore, after the textbook section spent the last six months in the Garden Court.
“Half of the main level is complete also,” Stratton said. “So we have approximately half of main level to finish, we’ve done that in phases to keep the rest of the bookstore open.”
Campus construction will probably affect new students and transfer students the most, because they are unfamiliar with the campus layout.
Jared Simpson, 22, a junior from Idaho Falls majoring in Biology, transferred this semester from Ricks College. He says there are a lot of new landmarks to get used to.
“It’s just a little inconvenient,” Simpson said. “I’m not used to a big campus anyway, and making it to class through campus construction is just one more thing to learn.”
Simpson said despite the inconvenience, he is looking forward to the benefits which will come from better facilities.
Construction will continue on a joint-use facility on the corner of University Parkway and University Avenue. The facility will house a married student stake center plus English as a Second Language classes. Campus officials are also working on a fire sprinkling project in the Harris Fine Arts Center, Wyview married-housing construction and a computer lab in the Spencer W. Kimball Tower.
