By
Jeff Ficker
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Mall will be more aesthetically pleasing when ILC fences are gone
The construction project known to UA students for the last two years as "the giant hole" is finally taking shape as a state-of-the-art complex for freshmen.
The pervasive chainlink fences are scheduled to come down in June to reveal the new Integrated Learning Center. The 100,000 square-foot structure will house 10 classrooms, four lecture halls and advising and tutoring services.
Slowly, the University of Arizona Mall will return to its original state. By July, the grass lawn that once ran from the cactus garden area to North Campbell Avenue will be replanted, UA spokeswoman Sharon Kha said.
Crews have started pouring sidewalks embedded with glass blocks that will serve as skylights for the ILC's underground hallways, as part of an overall effort to bring natural lighting into the underground structure.
Lecture halls await the installation of theater-style seating and acoustic wood paneling, while cranes hoist deliveries of large construction materials weekly into the ILC's central courtyard.
Inclement weather and the complexity of building underground structures have forced the ILC's grand opening to be postponed until Oct. 26 instead of the anticipated spring opening, said Lynne Tronsdal, associate dean of the University College.
Despite the delay, freshmen will be able to take advantage of the center's computer facilities and advising services in August.
The $20 million project is expected to be completed at only $300,000 over budget - a remarkable feat considering the difficulty of the project, said Dennis Martin, the ILC project manager for Target General, Inc.
Weather-related complications and the site's excavation contributed to delays and added costs, he said.
The building's depth was one of the project's primary expenses. In order to preserve the visual aesthetics of the Mall, architectural firm Gresham and Beach designed the structure to be built underground.
Yet, the deeper the ILC was built, the more expensive the cost, Martin said. Furthermore, the building had to be deep enough to allow grass to grow properly.
In the end, crews dug 24 feet deep, more than two stories underground. Large dump trucks removed dirt from the eastern end of the Mall five nights a week for nearly two months, at a rate of one truckload every five minutes.
Initial digging encountered weather problems, forcing excavation to stop at one point in September 1999. Rainfall at the university flows from north to south, causing drainage from the Psychology building to inundate the structure's north stairwell. Roof drains from the Main Library also resulted in further damage and delays.
Now that most of building's infrastructure has been installed, crews are joining the ILC with its neighboring structures.
"We have a lot of concrete and brick work that will tie into the library, Psychology building and student health center," Martin said.
He expects the major power to be turned on during the third week of March, at which point building lighting systems should be installed.
Five air conditioning and heating units - which are the size of small trailers - have been installed, as well as three large pumps that will be responsible for removing water, should the building be inundated. The pumps were designed to handle a flood twice the estimate of worst-case scenarios.
"I feel bad for current students," Martin said. "I almost cried when I saw the Mall and realized that I was going to destroy it, but I am going to leave it better than I found it."
