The sound of construction equipment has become background noise for students as construction on the D.P. Culp Center has continued throughout the semester.
“They’ve really done a lot of renovation where you can’t see,” said Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs, Sam Mayhew. “If you were to walk through what’s the second floor now that used to be the bookstore, you’ll see a lot of offices studded out for the new SORC. It’s starting to take shape.”
Mayhew said along with the SORC, the ID office and the student resource center is starting to take shape as well. Updates have also been made to the exterior of the Culp Center.
“You can also start to see the steal beams kind of extending out,” Mayhew said. “You’re starting to see some steel coming up, and that’s where they’re starting to take that expansion out towards the amphitheater. You’re starting to see some visualization on the outside, which will be exciting. I think that will be exciting for students when we go into the spring semester. Seeing that building coming up that will be really cool.”
Mayhew said the amphitheater will have a few renovations made to it as well.
“The amphitheater will be there as it currently is,” Mayhew said. “That space will still be utilized.”
Mayhew said that there have not been any issues with construction. With winter weather approaching, the construction team does not plan on stopping renovations.
“I was able to walk through the Culp Center two weeks ago right before Thanksgiving,” Mayhew said. “You can see how they’ve saved some projects to where if there is bad weather outside they can come in and start doing some work inside.”
With the construction team working hard on the Culp Center renovations, Mayhew said that they are still aiming toward reopening the building in the spring of 2020.
“Students are being impacted now,” Mayhew said. “We want to minimize that impact and really maximize opening that building, and so all along the construction team and the design team has really pushed hard on that spring 2020. Right now we’re on budget, and we’re on schedule. That’s always a positive thing.”
