A parking garage currently sits at University Avenue between Adams and Harrison streets. But after construction of a proposed 4- to 5-story building is completed, a new Syracuse University bookstore, a fitness center and retail space will add an urban feel to the street.

The building to be constructed at 601 University Ave. will be 123,768 square feet. It will act as the northern gateway to campus, according to the project plan submitted to the Syracuse Planning Commission on Dec. 19, 2008. The commission approved the proposal Feb. 23, said university spokesman Kevin Morrow.

‘No dates have been set yet,’ Morrow said. ‘The Planning Commission’s approval is an important step. The developer is in the process of arranging financing, and an agreement has not been finalized between the developer and the university.’

When the new building is finished, the recreation space will be bigger than the fitness center in Marshal Square Mall – located less than a block away – and Archbold Gym, which has 1,000 square feet of cardiovascular and weight machines.

Morrow said SU has told the developers it wants the project Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified. LEED is a rating system that measures how environmentally friendly a building is.

SU did not achieve LEED certification for the Life Sciences Complex. To qualify for this certification, the building must be a new or total renovation project that exceeds $10 million and achieves a specific rating, according to the university’s policy for the certification.

The total cost for the project is unknown, Morrow said.

Spread out on four floors, the new recreation space will consist of two levels of exercise rooms and dance studios, one floor of 10,000 to 12,000 square feet of cardiovascular machines, and another similarly sized floor consisting of weight machines, said Joseph Lore, director of the Department of Recreation Services.

‘We’ve had as many as 1,200 people in (Archbold Gym) in the course of a weekday,’ Lore said. ‘My sense is that those individuals will be dispersed to Ernie Davis Hall and University Ave. facilities.’

Recreation Services is reevaluating its space usage and what the gym will consist of after the University Avenue building is completed. One possibility is returning Archbold Gym to basketball courts, since the current fitness center sits on old courts. Lore said he hopes to get all new equipment for the University Avenue facility.

Cameron Group LLC, a commercial development, management and leasing organization, will front the money for the building, and the university would pay it back over time from the university’s operating budget, The Daily Orange reported Feb. 9.

Morrow said that plans for the current bookstore’s space in Schine have not been finalized, but it will be a student-focused space.

Senior architecture major Patrick Clare said he thinks SU deserves a new, larger bookstore in comparison to the size of facilities he’s seen on other universities campuses.

‘Looking at the plans and given the location, the building looks like it will be an excellent continuation of our university’s main approach,’ Clare said. ‘Adding to what the Whitman School contributed to University Avenue, it makes great use of an otherwise unused site.’

Freshman child and family studies major Nifemi Ogunsuyi said she sees no need for a new building, especially when there is already a student center on Main Campus and one on South Campus.

‘It’s far. Schine is already at a perfect location,’ she said. ‘We don’t need another one. It’s not like it’s crowded here.’

Nick Smiroldo, a sophomore political science major, said it’s a good idea to create a new bookstore because the current one gets crowded and seems outdated.

‘The new gym is great as well, because Archbold is so old,’ Smiroldo said. ‘It doesn’t even have an elevator. Having it so far away from actual academics and dorms, I feel like it will be built in the wrong place.’

At the University Avenue and Adams Street intersection, the building will be four stories high and contain the entrance to the bookstore, the closest connection to campus. At the intersection of University Avenue and Harrison Street, the building will be five stories tall, due to the slope of the land. About 6 percent of the building will be designated for retail space located only at the Harrison Street level.

When the University Avenue Garage was conceived in 2002, the concept for the mixed-use facility was incorporated. Some of the original features of the garage, including the fire pump and generator, were sized to fit the proposed structure. A loading dock will have to be renovated to suit the new facility.

‘Any time we increase space, it’s always a positive,’ Lore said. ‘Students have told us what they want, and we’re responding to student need.’

kmimamur@syr.edu

Published on February 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm