By the end of the year, a design team will begin work on a new building for the College of Liberal Arts, according to University officials.
Five firms are competing for the $9 million design contract, and negotiations are expected to wrap up in the next two weeks, according to David Harnage, Towson’s senior vice president and chief fiscal officer.
Harnage updated the University Senate on the project last week.
“It’s a very large project, and it’s a very exciting project,” he said.
The five competitors have been ranked, and their bids are being considered.
“We are currently in the process of negotiating the scope of work and related fees,” he said.
The disciplines of liberal arts, humanities and social sciences will be consolidated in the building. It will “centralize departments currently dispersed through campus,” according to the campus master plan. The building is budgeted to cost $113 million – nearly three times the amount of the Center for the Arts renovation.
Once Towson selects a contractor, it must complete a state approval process. Harnage said he expects it to conclude by the end of December.
“When we return from the end of the year, you will see a lot of information coming out about this project,” Harnage told faculty representatives last week.
The design team will hold meetings on campus to discuss possible configurations of the building.
“We’ve had a tremendous amount of interest from the architectural engineering community,” Harnage said, calling the building “the kind of project that design teams like to work on.”
He said relatively few new projects are “on the market,” so many firms are interested in the project, thus helping to keep the pricing more competitive.
The design process is expected to take two years. According to current projections, construction will begin in July 2006, and be complete in September 2008. The Lida Lee Tall building is scheduled to be demolished in summer 2006, to make way for the new construction.
The 250,000 gross square feet building is a key element of the “academic precinct” outlined in the master plan. Along with the College of Health Professions building, it will anchor a new outdoor campus commons and turn the face of campus toward Towsontown Boulevard.
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