Spring Break
Construction improves SMU
Maniel Harris, Contributing Writer, mharris@smu.edu
Issue date: 7/1/09 Section: News
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Better standards, better students and better facilities can lead to the ultimate goal of a better campus. The level of construction at this university has exploded in recent years and can currently be witnessed at many different locations on the Hilltop. Cranes and scaffolding are now part of the visual landscape and the sounds of "work-in-progress" are ongoing.
The largest and most visible construction projects at SMU are academic halls. Some of these facilities are being built from the ground up, while others are undergoing extreme makeovers to improve their usefulness. These buildings will soon be home to even more impressive areas for learning and academic exploration.
Bordering the south end of Bishop Boulevard and located next to the Highland Park United Methodist Church, the Perkins School of Theology construction will be complete this summer, just in time for the incoming class of 2013.
Kirby Hall and Selecman Hall, two buildings at the Perkins School of Theology dating back to the 1950s, are receiving significant upgrades in order to better serve students.
The Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Hall will be the newest addition to the Perkins quadrangle and will include a great hall for public events, a refectory for dining services, a student computer lab, preaching lab, classrooms, seminar rooms and two lecture halls. These additions will be complete this summer.
A fourth building will be added on to the Caruth Hall for Engineering Education, located across the street from the Hughes Trigg Student Center. Slated to open in the spring of 2010, the new-and-improved Caruth Hall for Engineering Education will serve as the third facility at SMU's Lyle School of Engineering and will complete the engineering quadrangle.
The construction site has been buzzing since the decision was made to tear down the aging, original facility, and the SMU community watched as the building was reduced to a pile of rubble over the course of the Fall 2009 semester. Its replacement is SMU's second building to be constructed by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Standards, and will contain additional classrooms and labs as well as the offices for the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education and the Department of Engineering Management and Information Systems (EMIS).
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