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OREM — Utah Valley University students and staff should prepare for a groundbreaking improvement on campus.
Officials broke ground on the new Student Life Center and an imminent parking garage the morning of June 18. The Orem campus has heard rumors of a parking structure for many months now, but it has finally become a reality for the growing University. Both are student-funded projects and they promise to be a huge relief in more ways than one.
The six-story parking garage has been designed by GSBS Architects, and will have up to 450 stalls for students and visitors, located close to the library and campus ballroom, according to a press release.
The Student Life Center will pose as a student activity building, with the purpose of encouraging students to unwind from the stresses of college life. Its future amenities of this 175,000 square foot building will include wellness center, bowling alley, multimedia area, large gym for volleyball and soccer, dance and yoga studios, newspaper offices, student council chambers and a reflection center with views of the mountains and sky.
"The design of the building reflects the students' desires to provide a holistic approach for a center which benefits both the physical and spiritual," principal architect of GSBS Architects John Branson said.
Construction isn't such a foreign idea to Orem residents, but the results are certainly an improvement for the university and the community. UVU has already seen many changes in its structure, most recently the major facelift to the Pope Science Building, and the destruction of the Bunnell House, making way for these additions.
The project is expected to last until late 2013.
