Students ready for a break from the dust, noise, and detours created by the construction on the Harbin Field multi-sport facility and the Davis Performing Arts Center will have to keep waiting.
The Davis Center occupies the site of the former Ryan Building, constructed as a gymnasium in the 1920s and most recently used for administrative purposes. Remodeling on the outside of the structure is mostly complete, but large parts of the interior are still gutted and bare.
“The Performing Arts Center will be completed and occupied in phases as the construction work on different areas is finished and we can begin furnishing the inside,” Assistant Vice President for Communications Julia Bataille said.
The costume and scene shops are already occupied, she said, and faculty offices and the studio theater should be completed by the end of August.
The Davis Center will open fully in late September, with two theaters, costume and scene shops, design studios, classrooms and administrative offices. Because of their finer and more detailed finishes, the principal Gonda Theater and its lobby will be the last to be completed.
The first performance is scheduled for later in the fall.
Construction workers say the project is well underway but has faced challenges from the size and location of the building.
“The site is land-locked on three sides, limiting access for machinery and space for construction,” Bovis Project Executive Greg Brunatti said.
Down the road, the freshly spray-painted yard lines and giant G emblazoned on the field appear to be final touches on the multi-sports facility, but there is still much to be done before the opening football game on Sept. 17.
“It’s going to take a long time,” said Joe Crockett, a construction worker on the site.
A new synthetic turf surface was laid in time for the first scheduled football practice this summer, but the installation of the south fence nets and some landscaping are still underway.
On the southwest side of the site, an exposed network of pipes and construction vehicles indicate a work in progress. The stands are yet to come.
Bataille, however, is confident that the project is on schedule.
“As for the multi-sport field, all but the finishing touches of phase one are complete,” she said.
Future phases of the project, she said, require additional fundraising and board and city zoning approvals before they can move forward.
