Building Liberty

More changes bring new look to Liberty’s campus

Construction on Liberty University’s campus continues as the administration makes plans to demolish the buildings located behind DeMoss.

According to Liberty’s Director of Planning and Construction Charles Spence, the university is looking to relocate the offices and classrooms currently residing in the SLAB and Schilling to the completed fourth floor of DeMoss by March 1.

“The purpose of what we are trying to do is to relocate people who are currently in buildings such as the SLAB to make room for the construction of the new library,” Spence said.

According to Spence, the demolition project is projected to begin as soon as all departments have been transitioned out of their current locations.

“After these building are demolished we are going to be left with approximately 90,000 cubic yards of dirt that needs to be removed for the library construction,” Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said. “We are planning on using this dirt to construct the new baseball stadium.”

However, demolition is not all that is happening on Liberty’s campus this semester, according to Spence.

“The perimeter road is a big part of our current construction. You can’t start the library without the perimeter road,” Falwell said.

“You have to route all of that traffic around,” Spence said. “There will be no traffic and no parking in that area. All of the traffic will be moved to the perimeter road.”

By redirecting all traffic to the outskirts of the university, the contractors and construction workers will be given ample space to begin demolition and construction, according to Spence and Falwell.

The perimeter road is scheduled to open at the end of this week, Spence said.

“After the transition to the perimeter road and the commencement of construction on the library, there are approximately 150 parking spaces on DeMoss Drive that are currently being used that will go away,” Liberty’s Vice President of Financial Research and Analysis Richard Martin said.

The loss of parking spaces will not affect the overall number of spaces available for students, according to Martin.

“We are moving approximately 100-200 staff parking spaces to Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC),” Martin said. “This will open up spaces for students to park near main campus.”

According to Falwell, the construction of the perimeter road is a major step forward for the university.

“We ran into every imaginable problem while completing this road,” Falwell said. “Bad mud, railroad issues, you name it — Mr. Spence had to deal with it all.”

“Is was a big undertaking, but with that done it frees us up to build the library as well as new dorms,” Falwell said.

With the construction completed, the administration has made way for the completion of other on-campus projects, including the basketball practice facilities behind Vines.

“This is going to be a neat building for students,” Falwell said. “This is going to be the building where you can walk across the roof to get to DeMoss.”

According to Spence, the practice facility is expected to be completed by Oct. 1.

The current construction plan projects the roof of DeMoss being completed first, then the practice facility, the library, which is expected to be completed by August 2013, and finally the new baseball facility, which is anticipated to be finished before the spring 2013 season.

The completion of the roof is anticipated before graduation in May.

“We decided to build 12 feet above the roof to give students and visitors a view of the mountains from DeMoss,” Falwell said.

“Where we go after that has not yet been decided,” Falwell said. “I don’t know whether the next move will be a new academic building where the Schilling is now, or new dorms.”

According to Spence, the immediate future holds the demolition of all one-story dorms as well.

However, construction on main campus is not all that the administration is working on right now, according to Falwell.

“We are currently buying the old church from TRBC and planning on moving the seminary there over the next few weeks,” Falwell said. “We are going to use the old church as a place to park departments temporarily as we make changes on campus.”

The seminary is being relocated to make room for the School of Worship, which will move into the old School of Religion as soon as the transition is completed, according to Falwell and Spence.

“We made the decision to demolish David’s Place because we recently noticed a need for a new practice football field for Coach Gill,” Falwell said. “We moved the baseball stadium over to make room for that second practice field, and the stadium is now going to sit right where David’s Place now sits.”

While rearranging the campus layout, the administration has not forgotten about the new health services building that was announced to students last semester.

“Right now we are awaiting a special permit that will allow us to build 92,000 square feet,” Liberty’s Director of Auxiliary Services Lee Beaumont said. “Once we get this next month, we will be able to move forward with the health services building.”

The health services building will be placed on Liberty Mountain next to the paintball fields, according to Falwell.

While waiting for the building permits the university has not slowed its expansion in other areas.

“We have started a lot of projects that are just for the future,” Beaumont said. “It is the same sort of thing that we did when we began to construct behind the Wingate. When it is cost effective to begin a project — to grade or level an area — we have to take that opportunity.”

This is the burning and excavation that students have been noticing below Snowflex on the highway.

“We decided to level out the land along the highway because construction costs are low right now,” Falwell said. “We have no definite plans for that area, it was just a good time to move forward.”

With so many construction projects underway the administration is urging students to follow signs and stay out of construction areas, Spence said.

“We have found many dangerous things while we have been working on these projects,” Spence said. “We found hidden wells and sink holes that could be dangerous if a student accidentally stumbled upon them.”