Amarillo College’s Washington Street Campus is about to experience some major and welcome enhancements, including the long-awaited establishment of a $2.2 million student-support center.

Along with repurposing Lynn Library to serve as a student support center—inclusive of a ground-floor Student Commons—the multi-faceted project also includes a makeover of the adjoining pedestrian mall and total renovation of the second floor of the College Union Building (CUB).

Overall cost of the three-pronged undertaking is $3.5 million, and funding comes from the remainder of the 2007 bond, generous donors, and AC reserves.

The renovations will take about a year to complete and be undertaken in phases to allow for the least amount of disruption to the College’s day-to-day operations; however, a few temporary inconveniences are unavoidable—eventual closure of the library’s east entrance, relocation of Career Services to the Student Service Center, and relocation of Tutoring Services to the first floor of Durrett Hall.

Even meetings of the Board of Regents will be moved within the CUB, from the second floor to the first, for the project’s duration.

“The benefits of these renovations will far outweigh the inconveniences they cause in the short term,” AC President Russell Lowery-Hart said. “We are particularly excited about the prospect of a Student Commons, which has been on the College’s wish list for quite a long time.

“It is something that our students deserve. I’m truly grateful for the unflagging support of our Regents and our donors, who well understand the value of these new assets as they relate to student success at Amarillo College.”

Upon completion, the library’s first floor will be equipped with multi-user computer stations, optimal lighting, new restrooms, floors and ceilings, a meeting room students can reserve, comfortable furniture and uplifting décor. Career Services and Tutoring Services each will return from their temporary displacements to glass-fronted offices that are both convenient to students and more conducive than ever to student success.

The pedestrian mall will have new appeal, too, with a fresh surface, sleek landscaping and an expansive and functional porch in place of the bare-bones east entryway that presently serves the library.

Renovations to the CUB’s second floor will provide new infrastructure throughout, along with technological upgrades to the Regents’ meeting room, and a fresh look in all conference rooms and offices, including those of the president and the AC Foundation.

The yearlong renovations are under way. AC’s physical plant has begun upgrading the library’s elevators, one at a time, to replace the antiquated contact-control system with a new digital operating system. The elevator cars also will be modernized. A contractor recently started asbestos abatement where necessary.

Page & Associates, the construction manager-at-risk, will soon modify the west side of the library to temporarily become the primary entryway. Those efforts must be completed in time for the closure by mid-October of the library’s current main entrance on the east side. That, in turn, will enable crews to begin work inside the library, on construction of its new eastside porch, and on the mall itself.

The mall also will be made over in stages, so at least a portion of the highly utilized campus throughway, from 24th Street to the Clock Tower, will remain open at all times.

Bruce Cotgreave, director of the Physical Plant, anticipates all work associated with the project being completed sometime next summer, certainly in time for the Fall 2016 semester.

July 28, 2015