Construction is an everyday occurrence on campus and this year is no exception. There are numerous projects starting and continuing into this school year.

Three projects that are extending into the 2024 school year include renovations to White Hall, a new residence hall on the South Lawn and the renovations to Pence Hall.

The White Hall Classroom Building holds about 50 classrooms according to Director of Campus Planning and Space Management Paul Knowles. The building hosts hundreds of classes daily and shares a basement with Patterson Office Tower, which holds the campus post office.

The $75 million renovation project on the building began during the summer of 2024. Mary Vosevich, Vice President of Facilities Management and Chief Facilities Officer, said White Hall is scheduled to be open again in the fall of 2026.

The 1970s building will have new lecture halls, classrooms and collaboration spaces for students.

Vosevich said White Hall had an earlier renovation project which improved its bathrooms. 

“It is overdue for a total modernization,” Vosevich said. “That was a successful project, but it really emphasized to us the need for (renovations to) the rest of the building.”

White Hall contains 56 classrooms, six of which are auditoriums on the ground floor of the building.

“We’re replacing those six auditoriums with two 290-seat classrooms and four that seat between 100 and 129,” Knowles said. 

Some of the classrooms on other floors are also being removed to make room for what Knowles called learning lounges, spaces where students can study alone or in groups. The study areas will be located on two of the corners of the second and third floors.

The Mathskeller, a place for students to receive tutoring, will also be moved to the second floor from the basement of White Hall.

“It is quite an extensive renovation that’s happening,” Vosevich said. 

White Hall has been fenced off along with its basement, but the area around the building will be accessible aside from the sidewalk between White Hall and Lafferty Hall.

Wildcat Wardrobe, the post office and Mathskeller have been temporarily moved to Patterson Office Tower. The Ricoh Document Service Center has been moved to Blazer Dining Hall.

“It’ll be a little bit of an inconvenience … We’ve had to relocate classes elsewhere on campus,” Vosevich said. “Before you know it, it’ll be a brand new building.”

Another construction project on campus impacting student walking paths will be the new residential hall on South Lawn. 

The perimeter of the area has been fenced off since the 2024 spring semester. The area will have signs placed in addition to the fencing directing students to alternate routes. Vosevich said the fencing surrounding the area will be lit up at night and that another sidewalk will be built for students to navigate around the construction on the north side of the lawn.

The new residence hall is said to be an $81 million four-story complex that will hold about 644 beds for undergraduate students, according to UKNow.

“It’ll be very similar to the residence halls you see on campus now,” Vosevich said.

Construction on South Lawn will extend throughout the school year and is said to be completed in the summer of 2026.

The $32 million Pence Hall project is a part of the Asset Preservation initiative according to the College of Communication and Information website.

The initiative is to preserve existing campus buildings so they may be used for their intended purposes longer. Vosevich described the project as a complete renovation so it can house the College of Communication and Information.

Knowles said Pence Hall was built in 1909, and used to house the College of Design before it moved to the Gray Design Building on North campus.

Renovations began during the spring of 2024 and are set to be complete by the summer of 2025 according to Vosevich. The renovated building will hold the Department of Communication, School of Journalism and Media, Dean’s Office and more.

The space between Pence Hall and the Chemistry-Physics building is now fenced off.

Vosevich also said elevators were being added to Pence Hall. She said there was a focus on making the building completely accessible for all students.

“When you keep in mind how long ago these buildings were constructed, we took a lot for granted then,” Vosevich said. “Now we’re doing everything that should be done in the facilities we’re working on.”

These three projects are only a portion of the campus-wide construction. Vosevich said recognising the impact of such projects on campus life is also an important consideration.

“It’s exciting to see – it’s exciting for us to provide new spaces for students, faculty and staff to live and work in,” Vosevich said. “(But) there’s construction going on from one end of the campus to the other right now … we realize it’s sometimes difficult to navigate around campus.” 

Additionally, some construction is being done in the area between the Gatton Student Center and the Singletary Center for the Arts. The construction in that area is part of utility work underneath the sidewalk according to Vosevich.

While ongoing and new construction projects will continue into future school years, others, like the Memorial Coliseum, Vosevich said, are nearing an end to construction.

“This is an amazing opportunity for the university for the long term. A chance to renew our campus and build it for the future,” Knowles said.