The university will soon have a renovated or new home for its president and a new events facility near the University of Maryland University College and Ludwig Field, officials announced Wednesday.
The existing President’s Residence is no longer adequate for hosting university events, and it falls short even as a house, according to officials at the University of Maryland College Park Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports the university.
The preliminary plan for the new University Events Center is a 6,400-square-foot structure with an estimated seating capacity of 125 and a standing capacity of 350, which will include dining rooms, a catering kitchen and storage, work and office space, according to foundation President Brodie Remington and a press release from the university.
The group expects to raise $1 million to fund the residence work and $5 million to build the new events center — “100 percent from private donors” — and begin construction this fall, said Remington, who is also the vice president of university relations. The group hopes to finish the home renovations by May and the events center in fall 2012, he added.
“The foundation’s plan is to raise the funds in order to build an event center that can be the focus of residential events and work that benefit the university, and to ensure that there is a residence that is safe, structurally sound, energy efficient and functional for the president and his or her family,” Remington said.
Remington said the group is also working with architects to determine whether it would be more cost-effective to build a new president’s house rather than refurbishing the old one.
Despite some improvements in the 1980s, the building has changed little since it was completed in 1956 and now has “enormous structural and system problems,” Remington said.
A recent tour of the house showed disintegrating sideboards, sagging door frames, inconsistent heating and air conditioning and fraying original carpet and furniture. Remington also noted that it’s the only residence on the campus without a sprinkler system, and it lacks fire exits from its basement.
“A good chunk of the house just isn’t usable, and what is usable is old and structurally deficient and, at least in some respects, unsafe,” Remington said.
He said the foundation intends for both structures to meet the silver standard of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and he predicts that energy savings as well as the elimination of tent rental costs for events could save the university as much as $75,000 a year.
The foundation’s plans will have to be reviewed and approved by the Board of Regents, which Remington said should take place within two weeks.
Matthew Creger contributed to this report. villanueva at umdbk dot com
