The Board of Curators named Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, Inc. (HOK) of St. Louis as the design-build bridging services for the Benton-Stadler science complex addition and renovations Thursday at its meeting here.
HOK was chosen after campus administrators interviewed three additional firms: Health Education & Research Associates, Inc. (HERA), Cannon Design and Mackey Mitchell Architects, which were ranked second, third and fourth respectively.
About $28.5 million of the $350 million in assets from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority was set aside for improvements in labs and classrooms in the science complex.
The science complex includes five buildings: Benton Hall, Stadler Hall, Research Building, Anheuser-Busch Ecology and Conservation Complex (Greenhouse), and the Center for Nanoscience (CNS) Building.
The total area of the five buildings is 354,750 square feet.
The University requested the services of HOK at a "not-to-exceed fee of $582,000," with a total estimated project cost of $50 million.
The first phase will be covered by $28.5 million promised by the MOHELA sale.
The remainder will come from maintenance/repairs capital pool and the infrastructure fee, as well as land grants and loans as needed.
The plans for the renovations were included in the request to name HOK as the architect.
Student Government President Bryan Goers said the plan is to build a new building while renovations are occurring in the other buildings.
"I don't know exactly where it will be, if it will be adjacent or an extension of the complex, but part of the money will go to build a new science building and then renovate Benton-Stadler," Goers said.
"While renovating it, they push all the science teachers into the new building so they do not disrupt any of the classes," he added.
The new state-of-the-art teaching labs in the new building will be part of Phase I of the project, in addition to renovating the vacated space in Benton Hall for new classrooms.
Some of the labs in Benton Hall, which was one of the first buildings constructed on campus, are 45 years old and have never been renovated before. An additional 150 parking spaces will be included in Phase I, as well.
Phase II includes reconstruction of Stadler Hall, which has not been renovated since its construction in 1967.
During Phase III workers will renovate the remainder of Benton Hall.
Goers said the campus is going to start contacting the architects and as soon as the two work together to get plans drawn up, the curators could approve construction as soon as the board's next meeting on April 3 and 4 at the Missouri University of Science and Technology campus or during the summer.
According to the request, approval for Phase I would occur in early 2009 and last until early 2011. Phases II and III are scheduled for completion by 2014.
Be the first to comment on this article!