East Campus may seem like it’s an eternity away, but for university departments being relocated to make room for the East Campus stores, apartments, movie theater and more, the design has already begun.
Department heads of the offices being relocated will meet next week to begin planning, but Grimm + Parker Architects has already started the first phase of design. It’s important relocation stays on schedule, as work on East Campus cannot begin until the departments and services, such as University Police, Mail Services, Shuttle-UM, Environmental Safety, Procurement and Supply and Facilities Management are moved, said Associate Vice President for Facilities Management Frank Brewer.
The design phase is scheduled to end in July, and construction will begin immediately afterwards, said Carlo Colella, director of architecture, engineering and construction. The 10 university departments and services affected will have to relocate to Lot 4i and the wooded hill past Comcast Center.
If the work stays on schedule, the relocation sites would be completed by the summer of 2010, when East Campus construction is scheduled to begin.
Colella said the new buildings will not be any more spacious than the originals, but related buildings – specifically some of the Facilities Management shops – will remain close to one another.
Nevertheless, some departments, such as University Police, may encounter problems with their new spots, officials said.
“We are going to face a lot of challenges,” University Police spokesman Paul Dillon said. “One of the biggest will be moving the 911 emergency call center. We can’t shut down. We have to maintain operations 24/7.”
Moving the security operations center will be another hurdle, he added. But the process, which may involve “lengthy meetings and timelines,” can still “be done. It just has to be planned thoroughly.”
The most important goal, Dillon said, is to avoid an interruption in the operations of the police department.
“We can do it,” he said. “We have a couple things in place,” he said, noting that one of those things is a contingency 911 emergency call center, the location of which he could not disclose.
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