Busy summer construction season set for SUNY Oswego

OSWEGO — The State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego will be humming with construction activity this summer as the school nears the end of a $300 million expansion plan that began in 2008.

This summer, a $17.2 million project will begin that will connect Oswego’s two School of Education buildings. The university’s Park Hall, the second oldest building on campus, will also be renovated as part of that project.

New construction linking the School of Education’s Park and Wilber halls will provide a new main entrance for the school. It will feature a three-story atrium, common-area seating, and a lounge.

Bergmann Associates of Rochester designed the structure. It will improve the flow between the buildings, previously connected by a skyway, according to SUNY Oswego.

The work on Park Hall will include a complete overhaul. The building will get a new roof, mechanical systems, sprinkler system, and windows.

New facilities like a webinar room and computer lab will also be added. New classrooms and offices are on tap as well. Park Hall opened in 1932, just 19 years after the campus’s first building, Sheldon Hall.

The work at Park Hall overlaps with the completion of a 13,700-square-foot, $5.8 million addition to Wilber Hall that will house new laboratories for technology education and the School of Education’s field placement office. That addition will open in August.

PAC & Associates, Inc. of Oswego, already general contractor for some other projects on campus, will also handle the School of
Education project.

In addition, work continues on one of the biggest pieces of SUNY Oswego’s development plan, a $118 million project involving renovation to the campus’ Piez Hall and a 150,000-square-foot addition that will house the university’s sciences and mathematics programs. The building remains on track for opening in the fall of 2013, says Thomas Simmonds, associate vice president for facilities at the university.

Work is also under way on a $10 million project to improve the exterior of Sheldon Hall. New windows, brickwork, and replacement of terra cotta molding are planned for the summer, according to SUNY Oswego.

Roofing and improvement of the front entrance will also take place in the coming months.

The work ongoing now is the culmination of years of planning, Simmonds says. 

About $200 million in funding for the projects came from the state. The remainder, which went to earlier work on residential buildings, came from residence-hall fees, Simmonds says.

The school is also planning to replace its Rice Creek Field Station with a new structure. The former station, a 1960s-era wood structure will be replaced in a $5 million project, Simmonds says. The station is used for biological sciences research and teaching.

SUNY Oswego is also renovating Romney Field House, the former site of its ice-hockey arena in a $2 million project. The hockey facilities moved to a new location in 2006 and the old field house will receive a new four-lane running track, a multipurpose field, and new heating and lighting.

Once the current expansion plan wraps up in 2013, there is still more to do, Simmonds says. Campus leaders are already planning projects including a new home for its School of Communications Media and the Arts and a new regional information resource center that would involve Oswego’s Penfield Library.