It will cost at least $15 million to bring the Student Union up to code, not including any renovations or even a drop of paint, the director of the Union said.

Dan Adams said although the deadline for the architects hired by the University of Arizona to submit their proposal for the Student Union has passed uneventfully, the university still expects to be finished planning by the end of May.

"We are really still in a preliminary stage. The building as a whole is in pretty poor condition. We have a lot of areas of concern to deal with," Adams said.

Carl Gajdorus II, a senior architect with the Facilities Design and Construction Division, said one of the more expensive renovations will be in making the building comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"The building is not easily accessible to the handicapped. It has 40-year-old plumbing, air conditioning and wiring. There are not enough toilets for the amount of people that use the building and it has been added on to so many times that the access to stairways and doors is bad," he said.

The university has been talking about renovating the Union for several years. When Adams was hired in March 1995, one of the qualifications for the position was that the director have experience with renovation and remodeling of unions. The hiring of MHTN Architects, a firm which operates out of Salt Lake City, in January marked the first real step by the university toward the construction.

One of the major decisions involved in rebuilding the Union is whether to do it in stages or to tear it down and rebuild it all at once. Gajdorus said that building it in stages will take longer and cost more, but tearing it down forces the university to find and pay for temporary facilities for the bookstore and dining establishments.

Another problem with rebuilding the Union in stages is that the university has to deal with the asbestos that remains in the building, Gajdorus said.

"There is not a lot and it is in very limited areas. I have to stress that there is no hazard from the asbestos as long as we are not messing around with it. It is very well managed. But as soon as we start doing construction it becomes a major issue we have to deal with," he said.

Once MHTN submits its recommendations, the university will begin a new search to find the architects who will actually design and build the new Union, Adams said. Gajdorus said a nationwide search, much like the one that hired MHTN, will be conducted. MHTN was hired with the primary goal of evaluating the existing condition of the Union and to determine how much space is needed by certain operations and what needs to be next to what, Adams said. MHTN also has to report to the university how much it thinks the project will cost and how long it will take.

He said although MHTN will certainly be eligible to apply for the position, it would be against regulations for the university to extend the current contract with the firm to include another job. The search will be conducted by a committee that is not yet formed, but will include architects and engineers, representatives from the UofA Associated Students Bookstore and other bodies housed in the Union, such as Associated Students.

After a firm is hired, the university will have to go through the Arizona Board of Regents for appraisals and determine where the funds will come from.

"We want to keep the project moving so there are no lapses in time," Adams said. "My goal is to continuously move forward."