By Christina Morrison
JSU News Bureau

Jacksonville - June 30, 2000 - The newest addition and renovation work at Jacksonville State University has an expected completion date of December, and should be occupied by spring semester 2001.

The Baggette company is currently remodeling Martin Hall, which housed many classrooms and science labs. And the McGee Science Center is being built by the Chorba company. All remodeling and building are expected to be completed by December of this year, in order to be utilized in the spring semester of 2001.

Don Thacker, vice president for administrative and business affairs, says, "Martin Hall was built in the mid 1960s as a classroom building which was used for labs. We have now built the McGee Center for Physics labs, Chemistry labs, and higher-level biology labs. In doing this, we can now utilize Martin Hall mainly for lectures."

The McGee Science Center will be linked to Martin Hall by a catwalk, which will make it easy to go from a lecture class directly to the lab. This design was also conducive in respect to the fire code as well as concerning the extensive ventilation, which many of the science labs will require.

"The McGee Center has all the modern building codes and is very up-to-date. The architecture is styled in such a way that it will match the buildings already here on campus, and is very pleasing to the eye. We're also remodeling Martin Hall with same ideas in mind," comments Thacker.

"This work will bring the sciences together in one place on this campus, which is something we feel will be very conducive to learning, as well as professional development," Thacker says.

Martin Hall is being completely redone on the inside as well as the outside, in order to make it more energy-efficient and cost-effective.

" Martin Hall was originally built in the sixties when energy was very inexpensive, so one of the main concerns was to make this building more energy-efficient. The windows were originally built very thin with little insulation, and we're working on changing that. Also, the brick on the outside of the building will help with insulation, and the new heating and cooling unit we've installed will lower the energy bill," Thacker explains.

These newest additions to the university were funded through a state bond issue, which covered 60% of costs. The remaining 40% was funded by JSU.

The next large projects that Jacksonville State University has on the books are the remodeling of the exterior of Houston Cole Library and the construction of a new music building.