Architect’s rendering of Phase I of the International Center for Water Technology

Construction booming on campus

By Shirley Melikian Armbruster
University Communications

The sounds of construction are ringing throughout the campus as seven major projects are in progress or about to begin, with an estimated total value of more than $150 million.

The projects will provide new and bigger classrooms and laboratories for students, a modern library, athletic team and recreational facilities and high-speed communications technology.

“There’s a growing need for more higher education opportunities in California and in Central California. To meet that need we’re in the midst of an unprecedented construction boom on campus,” said President Welty.

Here is a rundown on the projects and their impact on the campus and community. See a map of the projects at www.FresnoStateNews.com.

Science II Building:

The $22 million building is the largest academic building to be constructed on the Fresno State campus since a decade ago, when the Kremen School of Education Building was completed in 1994.

The three-story building will add classrooms and labs to the campus as well as new faculty offices. It will be ready for occupancy in January 2005.

The new 71,000-square-foot building will house the Departments of Psychology, Earth and Environmental Sciences and include lecture halls and labs for those two departments and a mathematics computer lab. It also will provide space for the Criminology Department, the dean's complex for the College of Science and Mathematics and for 109 faculty offices. 

Science II is slated to include graduate research and special instructional areas for the physics department to support the research needs of the Downing Planetarium. 

The completion of the building will allow the demolition of the remaining San Ramon Buildings, “temporary” buildings that have survived since the 1960s.

Downing Planetarium Museum :

Located just east of Science II and adjacent to the Downing Planetarium, the museum will be ready to open early next year.

Construction of the museum was made possible by a $750,000 gift from the Downing family of Fresno. The late Dr. F. Harold Downing, a long-time orthopedist, and his family established the planetarium as a community education resource. The planetarium, which opened in 2000, has a 74-seat star theater with a 30-foot dome. The Downing family’s gifts to date to the university total $3,125,000 for science scholarships and the Downing Planetarium.  

The   5,000-square-foot museum includes a large exhibit space for such interactive science exhibits as “How astronomers know how far away stars are,” and “What are stars made of?” plus demonstrations of electricity and magnetism. It also includes a room for children’s science activities, offices and a machine shop.

West Complex/Student Recreation Center:

Groundbreaking was held Oct. 29 for this $17.6 million building, a recreational and multipurpose facility designed primarily by students and intended largely for their use. In addition to the recreational areas, the building includes two academic components, the Leon and Pete Peters Educational Center and the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The two-story, 92,000-square-foot building will have its entrance facing Woodrow Avenue. Sink Combs Dethlefs is the architect and Lewis C. Nelson and Sons is the general contractor.

The building is being financed by a $49 per semester fee referendum passed by the student body in November 2000. The referendum stipulated that the fee increase would not start until opening of the facility. The project is scheduled for completion in December 2005, with the official opening in January 2006.  

Madden Library Renovation:

This $90 million project will be financed with funds from the Proposition 55 bond measure approved by voters in March 2004.

Older portions of the library will be demolished and a structure built, bringing the total footage to 294,848 square feet for collection storage, seating, library administration, individual study carrels, group study rooms and special collections and university administration.

The new building will include state-of-the-art information technology systems, 5,000 reader stations and the addition of technical and public service areas.

The entire 1-million book collection and all of the bound periodicals will be moved, with the location and logistics of book retrieval to be determined. Library employees will be relocated into the “newer,” four-story Library wing, which was built in 1980, during the construction. Also to be relocated into that section will be the reference and circulation departments, map library, government documents and the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature. The special collections department will remain in the wing.

The Madden Library is the largest academic library between Sacramento and Los Angeles. The current structure was designed to accommodate 13,000 full time equivalent (FTE) students, but the university now has about 18,000 FTE students (21,000 individuals). The expansion will provide space to serve a campus community of 25,000 FTE students.

International Center for Water Technology:

Construction of a planned $60 million water research and development facility will begin in January with Phase I, a $3 million Hydraulic Research and Testing Facility at the southwest corner of Barstow and Chestnut avenues. It will be complete by August 2006.

Phase I is funded by industry and grants. Federal funding provides for equipment and staffing. Phase II, east of Chestnut Avenue between Barstow and Shaw avenues, will get under way when private funding is in place.

The entire project, covering 70,000 square feet, is a collaborative venture between Fresno State and the San Joaquin Valley Water Technology Cluster, an organization of more than 40 manufacturers of water and water-related technology products located in the United States. The majority of these companies can be found between from Bakersfield to Stockton.

Ricchiuti Academic Center and Duncan Building Expansion:

This $5 million project constructed with private funding will be completed later this year. The Ricchiuti Academic Center will provide study tables, tutorial and computer labs, plus new  

coaching offices for the women's soccer team. The Duncan Building expansion will include new coaching offices, team meeting rooms, a new Bulldog locker room and a theater-style auditorium.

Telecommunications Infrastructure Initiative (TII):

Starting this month and continuing for the next two years, more than $18 million work will be done at Fresno State to ensure that the campus has the most capable computer and networking infrastructure possible.  

As the work progresses, the campus will be crisscrossed by a sophisticated fiber optic network that operates at gigabit speeds – up to 10 times improvement over the current network. This new network will significantly speed up data transmission rates and will make things like videoconferencing commonplace, and distance learning more real-time, interactive and accessible.

Funding for the project was provided by the CSU Chancellor’s Office from bond measure funds from the Proposition 42 bond, passed by voters in November 2002.