As workers welded new handrails into place Wednesday, a second main entrance to the University Center came one step closer to reality.
The handrails are among the final touches to the last piece of a $250,000 summer remodeling project that improved the appearance and function of the University Center’s first floor. For Jeff Davis and Megan Bell, the University Center’s director and associate director, the project to convert a former loading dock to a true second entrance comes none too soon.
Plans call for final construction approval Oct. 26 and a grand opening celebration on Nov. 9. Bell is planning a 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. celebration and promises food, music, a ribbon-cutting ceremony and office open houses to celebrate the long-gestating project.
“We knew there were utilities in the area,” Davis said. “But we didn’t know there so many until the digging started. They were all there – gas, electric, data, telephone, water and sewer — and right where we didn’t want them to be.”
As contractors began to dig a foundation for a new entrance that would support a 35 foot glass and metal tower, the web of utility lines was discovered. They stood in the way of progress to build a second entrance to the University Center that matched the building’s main entrance and mimicked the architectural style of Centennial Hall.
Faced with a hefty bill to move the utilities, the project was redesigned. Now, instead of a traditional foundation, the tower is supported by piers which go deep into the ground and around the utilities web.
While most campus community members will pay more attention to the aesthetic transformation that brought a rounded set of entry stairs and the signature tower to the building, a solid foundation was necessary before moving forward.
And while clearly frustrated by the delay, Davis is pleased that visitors to the University Copy Center and MOSAIC offices will no longer feel like they are being shuttled through a back door. For in reality, they were.
The roots of the new, second entrance to the University Center can be traced to the late 1970s when the space was occupied by the Kraemer Family Library. What is now an entrance was then a loading dock for books and mail delivered to the university. Though the occupants of the space changed, the loading dock roots remained.
“I’m excited that visitors to MOSAIC and the Copy Center in particular are now going to have an entrance that proudly says ‘UCCS’ and lets them know they are welcome here,” Davis said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
— Photos by Tom Hutton, University Advancement, and Jeff Davis, University Center
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