Good Growth
Construction is booming on campus
By Kevin Hyde
During a pristine early October day, the familiar sounds of the University of Louisville—students chatting between classes on the Quad, the blaring horn of a train lurching through campus and the hum of Interstate 65 to the east—were mixed with the concussion of hammers, the scream of table saws and the “colorful” banter of construction workers. Also, enormously tall cranes and all manner of heavy machinery have temporarily transformed the university skyline.
You need only to stroll around Belknap Campus—which is highly recommended during these beautiful autumn months—”to see that the university is not content to stand still,” says U of L President James Ramsey. “A few of the most obvious examples of this can be seen in the new buildings that are popping up around Belknap Campus.”
The Belknap Research Building, a $41 million facility that will give faculty and students a big edge as they conduct leading-edge research, is well on its way to completion on Brook Street. Just around the corner at Warnock and Floyd streets construction is buzzing away on the new natatorium, which will be the finest swimming facility in the region and a huge addition to U of L’s already nationally renowned Cardinal Park sports and recreation complex. Ekstrom Library soon will boast a large new addition featuring high-tech teaching labs, an automated book retrieval system, a restaurant and more.
“We are also excited about the development along Central Avenue and Floyd Street,” Ramsey says.
As Cardinal football fans probably noticed as they drove south on Floyd Street toward Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium for the Oct. 2 homecoming game, Algood Foods is no more. Earlier this year the university purchased the property, and demolition of the old peanut butter plant was completed in early October. The land will become green space and intramural fields.
“It will allow the Belknap Campus to extend all the way to the southern tip of the stadium with vistas of intramural and recreational fields along Floyd Street,” Ramsey says.
Ground also was broken in early October on the new baseball field, Jim Patterson Stadium, which will sit next door to the football stadium on Central Avenue.
This all points to one of the most profound evolutions of Belknap Campus in university history.
William F. Ekstrom Library Expansion
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A new entrance off Third Street, a café and a robotic automated book retrieval system will be part of a new $14.2 million expansion of the William F. Ekstrom Library currently under way at the university.
Funded through federal earmarks secured by Sen. Mitch McConnell, the 42,500-square-foot addition will include many features to make the library a state-of-the-art facility.
“Every great university needs a great library,” Ramsey says. “As U of L continues to march toward becoming one of America's great research universities, we must develop our libraries to help support that mission.”
The project will bring several new features to the library, including an automated storage and retrieval system that will provide highly efficient, secure and environmentally controlled storage of up to 1.2 million volumes. The system will enable the university to increase its holdings to 3 million volumes while providing rapid, robotic book retrieval.
Students also will benefit from a 24-hour facility, which will provide a safe study place around the clock, and from an expanded and updated current periodicals reading room.
“The study room in particular will be a great benefit to many of our students who, because of work or other obligations, may need access late at night or early in the morning,” says Hannelore Rader, dean of University Libraries. “This room will significantly improve our ability to help those students.”
The expansion, which is set for completion in fall 2005, also will include:
- A renovated and expanded lobby and information center
- Office, meeting and display space for the McConnell Center for Political Leadership
- A large auditorium that will be handicapped accessible and will feature modern instructional technology
- Café and commercial space for employees and students
Ralph Wright Natatorium
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Last fall U of L broke ground on the Ralph Wright Natatorium, a beautiful new swimming facility that will not only serve as the men's and women's swimming and diving venue but also will benefit the U of L student body's need for recreation, fitness and instruction.
The natatorium will feature an eight-lane, 50-meter competition pool with a depth ranging from 4 feet 6 inches to 18 feet. Movable bulkheads will enable the pool to be divided into two 25-meter or 25-yard competition-ready areas. The deep end will feature two 1-meter boards, two 3-meter boards and a tower with diving platforms at 5-, 7.5- and 10-meters.
Over the next 20 years, student fees will provide $7 million towards the new complex. U of L students voted in the spring of 1999 to allow $15 of their student fees each semester to be earmarked for the natatorium. That, along with private donations, has brought the project to the forefront.
“I take my hat off to the student leadership at this university,” says athletic director Tom Jurich. “It is a tremendous statement to have your student body as a full partner in this project. It's unprecedented to have a facility of this magnitude to be erected with the students providing the cornerstone funding.”
The 41,000-square-foot natatorium will accommodate up to 800 spectators and athletes. It will include office space, a large meeting/hospitality room and separate locker rooms for the public and for team members.
The natatorium has been designed to be consistent with other Cardinal Park facilities. The building and landscaping will add to the park-like atmosphere on the east side of Belknap Campus.
The natatorium is named after Ralph Wright, U of L's first swim coach.
Belknap Research Building
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This 106,000-square-foot building—expected to be completed in late 2005—will provide cutting-edge facilities for physical, biological, chemical and engineering research. Total cost of the building on Brook Street is $41.4 million. The state is paying 60 percent of the cost of construction and equipment; the university is raising the rest through a bond issue and from private sources. In addition, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell secured $1.7 million in federal money toward construction in the research facility of what will be the largest “clean room” in the state.
Along with creating new knowledge and educational opportunities, a key goal of the new research building is to nurture interdisciplinary research.
George Pack, chair of the chemistry department, says the facility’s design should encourage strong collaborations, largely because all of the offices are together. Researchers from different labs might strike up a conversation at the water cooler or coffee pot that could lead to some vital partnerships. At its best, the new building will be an opportunity to break down old boundaries that have largely outlived their usefulness in modern research, Pack adds.
“I don’t mind putting people who are doing biological work in with some biologists who are doing chemical-like work,” he says. “The idea of having these old departmental boundaries is just wrong. Things are multidisciplinary now. All science is multidisciplinary.
“The only reason that we keep those old labels for departments is for teaching purposes. That’s not the way science is going.
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Algood Property
The university recently acquired the Algood property just south of campus on Floyd Street and will use this to create more intramural fields and green space connecting the Belknap Campus with the Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium area. For decades the property—located between the south end of the stadium and north of the Eastern Parkway overpass—was the site of Algood Foods, which made peanut butter.
Jim Patterson Stadium
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University, community and state officials recently broke ground on Jim Patterson Stadium, the new home field for the U of L baseball team.
Set to be ready for the 2005 baseball season in late February, the $10 million stadium will have similar exterior elements to Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, which is located next door on Central Avenue. The new field includes 1,500 chair-back seats, a state-of-the-art 128-by 176-foot scoreboard and a main press box with two radio booths and a television booth.
The surface will be Field Turf, the same kind found at the home fields of Major League baseball’s Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Montreal Expos as well as Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. U of L will be only the second NCAA baseball facility with Field Turf on the entire field with the exception of the mound and home plate.
The field dimensions are 330 feet to left field, 375 feet to left-center, 402 feet to center, 377 to right center and 330 feet to right field. The first 8 feet of the roof supports will be constructed with green brick from the left field wall at historic Parkway Field.
The stadium is named for Jim Patterson, a former U of L baseball player and 1955 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. He went on to an extremely successful career in business as founder of Long John Silver’s Inc., Chi Chi’s Mexican Restaurants, Rally’s Hamburgers and Western Restaurants, which owns 49 Wendy’s restaurants. He also has been active in several oil, telecommunications and computer ventures as well as local charitable and civic organizations.
