K-State Opening Doors On New Opportunities

By Beth Bohn

KSU News Service

Kansas State University students will open the doors on new academic and student services this fall with the
completion of several multimillion-dollar projects.

New for the fall semester will be Fiedler Hall and Library, an addition to the K-State engineering complex. The
75,000-square-foot building includes a technological library and high-tech auditorium, engineering classrooms and
laboratories. It also will house the department of civil engineering.

The $12 million project was made possible through $5 million in state "Crumbling Classrooms" funds and $7
million in private donations, including more than $5 million from Alice Fiedler. The St. Petersburg, Fla., resident
made the donation in honor of her late husband, George Fiedler, a K-State alum.

"Fiedler Hall and Library will benefit generations of future engineers, enhance the university’s reputation and
expand the sphere of influence K-State’s College of Engineering now enjoys," said Terry King, dean of the
college. "Completion of this addition will make the Durland-Rathbone-Fiedler Engineering Complex a crown
jewel on the campus of Kansas State University. As we move into the 21st century, it will set the standard for
learning, outreach and research innovation and excellence."

The Seaton Hall east wing renovation is on pace for opening in time for the fall semester. "The project has
involved a total gutting of most of the east wing, including a reconfiguration of the first and second floors," said
Jerry Carter, director of facilities planning and university architect.

The $6 million project, which includes $5.2 million in state "Crumbling Classroom" funds, provides life-safety and
accessibility improvements, as well as 20 new studios, four new critique studios, five new classrooms and new
offices for the department of interior architecture and the department of landscape architecture and regional and
community planning. A new accessible south entrance to the building also is being built.

The renovation project is the first phase of a long-range development plan for Seaton Hall, said Dennis Law,
dean of the College of Architecture, Planning and Design.

"In the second phase, the lower level of the east wing will be renovated with funds raised over the next couple of
years and will cost approximately $2 million," Law said. "The third phase will be the construction of a link
between Seaton Hall and Seaton Court and will include a major new entrance from the east side."

The bulk of the work with the three-year Union enhancement project should wrap up in time for the fall semester.
Finished over the summer have been a computer store, a coffee and sweet shop, hair-care center, refurbished
Cat’s Pause lounge, new automatic banking and postal service center, renovated Little Theater and a new office
for K-State’s multicultural student organizations. Some interior work, including carpeting and painting, will
continue through the fall.

"We’ve taken an interior that was very much an example of the 1950s and 1970s and have updated it so that it’s
now a more open facility with a lot of visual excitement," Carter said. "It used to be when you walked in the front
of the entrance you didn’t see much because everything was hidden behind walls. We’ve opened it up and
changed vistas. We’ve made it a more open, refreshing place to be."

One of the biggest changes in store for students this fall will be the revamped plaza area between the Union and
Seaton Hall. The project includes a new north entrance, dining lanai, a water feature and new sidewalks. Some of
the construction work, as well as landscaping and irrigation work involved with the project, will continue through
the fall.

While some major projects have been completed, K-State continues to build for the future. Here’s a look at some
new projects now under way or that will start soon:

ò Construction of the Ackert Hall expansion will get under way in August, with Cheney Construction Co. of
Manhattan the apparent low bidder for the $9.8 million project. Because of funding concerns, the project has
been scaled back and will now include modern laboratory space for the Division of Biology and be the home of
the administrative offices for the Center for Basic Cancer Research and BioServe Space Technologies. When
additional funding is secured, the project will be expanded to include research and instructional laboratories for
the department of biochemistry. More than half of the cost of the project is being provided through
state-appropriated funds, as well as some federal funding and more than $2 million in private donations secured
by the cancer center.

ò Work on the renovation and addition to the College of Human Ecology’s Hoeflin Stone House Child Care
Center is now in progress. The $1.7 million project includes the addition of the C.Q. and Georgia Chandler
Institute for Child and Family Studies, a 10,000-square-foot addition to the 4,000-square-foot Stone House. The
Chandlers, from Wichita, are K-State alums and the major donors to the privately funded project. "The Stone
House expansion and renovation will provide new and better opportunities for students and researchers in early
childhood education, nutrition, kinesiology, social work and other majors that study human development," said
Carol Kellett, dean of the college. The project includes upgrading the existing toddler, preschool and early
childhood labs, as well as the addition of a child and family outreach center and assessment and therapy areas.
The expansion also allows for technological enhancements that will improve and expand distance education
opportunities in early childhood education offered through K-State. "Each lab will have a network of cameras and
microphones so students and researchers can view lab activities from other areas of Stone House, from Justin
Hall, from Telenet sites, on a restricted K-State’s cable access channel or on the World Wide Web," Kellett said.

"I think people who haven’t visited K-State in the last few years would be really surprised to see our campuses
today," Carter said. "We’ve been quite successful in creating new and exciting places for academic work,
research and administrative support needs of this university."