ASU buildings will be going up and crashing down across three ASU campuses in the coming months and years, following the approval of several construction projects by the Arizona Board of Regents Friday.
On the Tempe campus, seven buildings in the southeast corner of campus - including the gold-domed Visitor Information Center - will be torn down. The demolition will cost about $6 million.
The visitor center's roof will be disassembled and reused on campus, said Carol Campbell, executive vice president and chief financial officer. When and how the dome will be reused is uncertain, but President Michael Crow has proposed the College of Design put forth ideas.
Regents approved building a new ASU police station on the corner of Apache Boulevard and College Avenue, where parking Lot 17 West is now located. The building is estimated to cost $12.5 million.
Regents authorized ASU to lease land for a developer to build a residence hall at the Downtown Phoenix campus. They also approved an ASU request to build and renovate a $103 million, four-building facility at the Polytechnic campus, which will be used for classrooms, offices and storage.
At their meeting, held at UA, the regents also unanimously approved an optional guaranteed-tuition program for incoming ASU students and a surcharge for students with more than 150 credit hours.
"[The guaranteed-tuition program] is just another option for students," said Student Regent Ed Hermes.
Beginning in fall 2007, new resident students at the Tempe and Downtown campuses will have the option of paying a tuition price $368 to $814 higher than next year's tuition of $4,821, based on the number of credits they have entering the University.
New in-state students at the Polytechnic and West campuses will have the option to pay $354 to $782 more than next year's tuition of $4,620.
This tuition price will then be locked in through the student's senior year regardless of tuition increases, but fee increases will still apply. After a maximum of four years, the tuition price would revert to the current level.
The surcharge, enacted by the Legislature in 2005, will require undergraduate students who exceed 150 credit hours next school year to pay 20 percent more than the normal tuition amount.
Exceptions to the charge include double majors and transfer students. In September, 192 ASU students would have been affected, according to ABOR reports.
Demolishers will tear down buildings on the Tempe campus, including Sahuaro and Mariposa halls, to make room for a new parking structure and housing complex south of Apache Boulevard, as well as the Barrett Honors College complex.
Historic preservationists have decried the deconstruction of the gold-domed Visitor Information Center in building the honors complex, saying it's a historic landmark.
"A lot of people see this as an icon down on Apache [Boulevard]," Hermes, a political science and history senior, told the board.
Hermes said he would have liked to see more creative building plans that incorporated the building, such as using it as a foyer or lobby.
But Regent Fred Boice said though some people were genuinely concerned about the building, sometimes preservationists get concerned over "moving a rock."
"I feel this is for the greater good of the community and the state of Arizona and the university system," he said.
The south-campus projects, already generally approved by ABOR, will be voted on in detail at a later ABOR meeting, Campbell said.
The honors complex is scheduled to open in fall 2009, and the south-campus complex should be completed in 2009-10, ASU spokeswoman Terri Shafer said in an e-mail.
The Downtown residence hall, to be built by private developer Capstone Development, will have space for 700 to 750 students in fall 2008 and an additional 500 to 550 the following year. On-campus Downtown residents currently live at Residential Commons, a converted Ramada Inn.
Reach the reporter at: james.kindle@asu.edu.
