Franklin to close when Marshall opens in spring

Students have only a few more months to say goodbye to the Franklin building.

Beginning in the spring, returning students will get to study in the new Marshall building on the corner of North Park Avenue and East Second Street.

Construction of the nearly $18 million Louise F. Marshall building is on schedule.

The building will house several departments, including those in Franklin, and should be done in time for the spring semester, said Johan Lahtinen, assistant director of space management.

The journalism department, Near Eastern Studies department and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies are not the only university programs making a move.

Others include the media arts department, the Center for Latin American Studies, the Committee on Judaic Studies and the Race Track Industry Program.

The fifth floor of the Marshall Building is reserved for the College of Engineering's research project: Sustainability of Semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas.

The Marshall Foundation, a non-profit organization that donates 50 to 60 percent of its revenue to the UA and owns many of the buildings on East University Boulevard is leasing the new building to the university.

The foundation plans to reserve the ground floor for retail tenants.

"The northern half of the first floor is going to be the Arizona Bookstore," said Tom Warne, consultant for the Marshall Foundation.

He said the foundation is negotiating with several restaurants and other businesses for the other half of the first floor.

Many of the departments in the Franklin building say they will be happy to get out of a facility that has had its share of problems.

"We'll be delighted to move out of the Franklin building," said Jacqueline Sharkey, head of the journalism department.

She said biohazards over the past three years, such as mold infestations, bacteria in the ventilation and sewage leaks, have harmed the departments Îlearning environment.

"It's a waste of space, this building," said Phil Nopper, business manager for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. "It's falling apart."

Edward Wright, director for the Committee on Judaic Studies, located in Geronimo Square on East University Boulevard, is also looking forward to the transition.

"We're excited about the opportunities for more space and serving our students better with a more efficient design," Wright said.

Indeed, one highlight of the move will be to place the Committee of Judaic Studies, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the department of Near Eastern Studies on the same floor.

"It's a natural fit for us to join Middle Eastern Studies on the fourth floor," Wright said.

Kate Mackay, assistant director for Middle Eastern Studies, explained that the three departments share the same students, and professors regularly correspond with one another.

The three departments will be benefiting from yet another by-product of the move to the Marshall building.

Anne Betteridge, director for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said the position of the Franklin building made it unfit for satellite reception.

But the location of the new building and the installation of a satellite dish will give the departments the ability to tap into Middle Eastern TV.

"We're going to have satellite connections for Middle East programming so there can be programming in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish," Betteridge said.

"People can see things like Al-Jazeera, or TV from Israel, or from Turkey and that kind of thing. For the language classes, that will be great."