Summer is the busiest time for construction on campus and there are many projects underway. Read this second update for more details about enhancements to Elon’s outstanding environment for learning.
As the end of July approaches, major construction projects on Elon University’s campus are now fully underway as crews tackle a range of facilities including new classroom, office and activity spaces.
Construction began in early summer on the three-story, 30,000-square-foot Sankey Hall, an expansion of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business that is being built adjacent to the Colonnades Dining Hall on the north end of the McMichael Science Center parking lot.
Once complete, Sankey Hall will become home to a new financial education center as well as the Doherty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center, which will all be located on the building’s first floor. The relocation of the Doherty and Chandler centers will free up much-needed space in Koury Business Center to expand the Porter Family Professional Development Center and Reed Finance Center.
Inside, Sankey Hall will boast a “Google-esque” design, with exposed building components, open spaces, glass walls and vertical writing surfaces, according to Brad Moore, university architect and director of planning, design and construction management.
The second floor and third floors will be home to technology-infused classrooms, faculty offices and conference rooms, with each of the three floors to contain student breakout spaces and locations for student-faculty engagement.
Sankey Hall is expected to be completed by August 2018.
Phoenix Drive
Work is underway to extend Phoenix Drive beyond the roundabout by the business school to connect to the fire lanes on the north side of the Colonnades residence halls. The extension will provide access to the parking lot areas on the east side of Colonnades.
With the extension, a new traffic flow device will be in place between Danieley Center and the Colonnades parking lot. Vehicles will be able to access parking behind the Colonnades Neighborhood from the Phoenix Drive extension, and will be able to continue east to Danieley Center. However, a gate will restrict vehicles from Danieley Center from moving west through the Colonnades parking lot to the new road and North O’Kelly Avenue.
The extension is expected to be completed in August.
Elon University Poll
The relocation of Elon’s Master’s in Interactive Media program from Powell Building to Long Building as part of the School of Communications expansion and renovation project means a new home for the Elon University Poll.
The polling center has relocated from its home in Gray Pavilion to renovated space on the second floor of Powell Building that previously housed the Interactive Media program. The center includes new polling stations that students will use during survey activities beginning this fall, as well as small pods within the center for specialized surveying.
The space previously occupied by the polling center in Gray Pavilion is being renovated to include a general purpose classroom and four faculty offices. That work should be complete in early August.
Elon’s second Maker Hub
Last year, space in the third floor of Town Center in downtown Elon that had previously been used as offices for The Pendulum, the student-run news outlet, was repurposed for the Design Thinking Studio in Social Innovation, a pilot program through which students immersed themselves in crafting potential solutions for complex challenges.
That space has been expanded with a new Maker Hub that can be used by the students in the Design Thinking Studio course, as well as the broader Elon University community. “The current Maker Hub in Harper Hall has been very successful, so this is a way to expand those offerings and make them available to more students,” Moore said.
The new hub will include similar amenities to what’s available in the first hub, such as equipment for 3D printing, laser cutting, E-textiles and fabrics, computing, electronics and woodworking.
The new hub should be finished in early August.