By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Work crews are laboring through the heat at BGSU both to get the campus ready for the arrival of students six weeks from now and to make sure the university continues to thrive over the next 15 years and beyond.
April Smucker, associate vice president, planning, construction and campus operations, in a recent interview updated the list of work underway on campus from the landmark addition to the College of Engineering and Innovation to the work going on underground on chilled water and power lines.
The work includes buttoning up the renovation of 86-year-old Kohl Hall and the initial moves toward renovating the 60-year-old Kreischer Quadrangle.
Projects need to be continually monitored. Two weeks of rainy weather early in the season gave crews little leeway as the heat settles in.
Technology Engineering Innovation Center
The work, Smucker said, is progressing well. About 10,000 square foot administrative wing has been razed, and the under construction 24,000 square foot wing has been enclosed.
“We’re still on track to complete that portion of the work and be open in January 2026,” she said.
Then more renovations in the administrative part of the building will get underway, and should be completed later in 2026.
The new innovation center will have seven labs as well as faculty office space, classrooms, and a variety of spaces for students to gather. These will include more formal collaboration spaces with white boards, or just a nook with comfortable chairs.
Those spaces have been well received in the Education Building and elsewhere in the core of campus, Smucker said. “So we really wanted to lean into some of those things that we’ve included in other projects more in the core campus.”
The byword with the design is flexible.
Kohl Hall
The renovation calls for adding dorm rooms on the lower floor and modernizing the spaces and rooms. All restrooms will be converted to pod-style. These restrooms allow for facilities accessible to a group of rooms, yet offer privacy within.
Air conditioning has also been installed.
The $10,5 million project had been scheduled to be completed by the beginning of summer but was delayed when a new roof was added to the project.
“”That’s now extended the useful life for many, many decades to come,” Smucker said.
It should be open for the start of the semester.
Jerome Library
The signature building on campus is undergoing restoration of its exterior envelope including caulking, tuck pointing and new windows. When that work is completed later this summer, restoration of the Donald Drumm murals facing west and east will begin.
“We would love to be able to get to a point where we could do some sort of recognition at homecoming,” Smucker said. “But it’s all going to depend on how far we get and how much the weather cooperates.”
Kreischer Quadrangle
Turning to the Kreischer Quad, Smucker said, “the first thing we need to do is prepare it for its future.”
The building’s dining facility, the Sundial, has chillers that are beyond their useful life. This summer’s project is to connect the building to the centralized chiller system. Those chilled water lines will be large enough not just to serve the Sundial but to eventually service air conditioning for Kreischer.
Though now being the only residence hall without air conditioning, it remains popular with many students because of its central location near both the athletic facilities and the arts programs.
Other projects, top to bottom
The university’s chief financial officer, Sheri Stoll, has said on several occasions that no student has ever decided to attend BGSU because it has nice roofs. But roof work and less glamorous work is essential.
The Fine Arts Center will be getting sections of new roof. A section on the south side of the facility is slated in the 15-year Master Plan V. 2 for demolition.
Every summer, campus operations upgrades and renovates some classrooms around campus working with information technology systems personnel to determine which rooms they will also be addressing.
About 80 faculty offices are being relocated from East Hall to make more efficient use of the building.
The central heating plant is also being automated. Now it must be staffed 24-hours a day.
All this work is done with an eye toward improving efficiency now as well as laying the groundwork for future operations.
