Advertisement

UT starts work on six-story academic building, its biggest

 
The six-story, 90,000-square-foot Graduate and Health Studies building is scheduled to be complete by fall 2018. There are plans for a twin building, connected via skywalk.
The six-story, 90,000-square-foot Graduate and Health Studies building is scheduled to be complete by fall 2018. There are plans for a twin building, connected via skywalk.
Published March 24, 2017

TAMPA — The University of Tampa plans to start construction next month on what will be the biggest academic building on campus.

The six-story, 90,000-square-foot Graduate and Health Studies building is scheduled to be complete by fall 2018. There are plans for a twin building, connected via a skywalk.

The new building will take over the intramural field, next to Pepin/Rood Stadium, and will serve as home to the nursing program, physician assistant studies and graduate studies.

Since 2000, UT has built or refurbished 19 academic buildings. With its growing enrollment, the university still needs more academic space, said spokesman Eric Cardenas. Cardenas would not say how much the project will cost.

The nursing program, now housed in the southern part of Walker Hall, will be demolished when the new building is complete, Cardenas said.

The growing enrollment will require even more space.

One student, junior Remington Baturin, 21, said the campus needs to create more dorms than classrooms.

"They keep accepting more students, but with that acceptance rate, they need to make sure they have places to live," Baturin said.

The last planned dorm project, phase two of the Palm Apartments, opens next fall and there are no current plans for more dorms, Cardenas said. Some students still will be housed at the nearby Barrymore Hotel.