UTD and UT System officials approved a recommendation Feb. 14 to award a contract for a residence hall and a dining facility with a prospective completion date of July 15, 2008, to architect Carter Burgess (CB).

Officials expect the residence hall will be located north of Waterview Park Phases VIII and IX. The location of the dining facility has not yet been chosen.

A committee composed of Director of Housing Operations Matt Grief, Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students Donna Rogers, Assistant VP for Facilities Management Rick Dempsey and three representatives of the UT System chose CB from four prospective architectural firms.

“They know that we have a vision of where we want to go as a premier (university),” Grief said. “We feel like they have the staff time commitment�to meet our needs.”

Grief said talks among UTD officials indicate the residence hall will accommodate 400 rooms with three bedrooms. Each room would have a three-sink bathroom with separate rooms for a toilet and shower.

Grief said the project is entering the programming phase during which UTD officials will discuss design concepts, cost estimates and room planning through March 12. He added this phase usually takes place over four weeks, but due to the accelerated schedule of completion, will only last 13 days for this project.

Grief said CB has worked on similar housing at UT Tyler.

“We’re going to be working on a really accelerated time frame,” Grief said. “We’re going to have to make a lot of quick decisions in a short amount of time.”

University officials working on the programming phase of the residence hall will include Grief, Dempsey and one UTD student.

Those on the programming phase of the dining facility will include Rogers, VP for Student Affairs Darrelene Rachavong, Assistant VP for Business Affairs Pete Bond, Interim Associate Director for Facilities Management Tom Lund and an additional UTD student.

Each week, both programming groups will attend an executive meeting. Within the first few weeks of the project-planning phase, the fall ‘08 deadline will be evaluated for soundness, Grief said. He added if the deadline proves to be too soon, the project will be pushed to a completion date of fall ‘09.

Dempsey said design development plans and specifications will be presented to the UT System Board of Regents prior to May 9-10 meetings on the project between system officials.

“We want this to be something where students are going to say, ‘Hey, that’s somewhere I want to live,’” Grief said.

Source: media.www.utdmercury.com

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