Courtesy of Facilities Planning Design and Construction

Coming this fall, San Diego State’s campus may be undergoing a large-scale renovation that will upgrade multiple buildings and close a large area of campus.

Officials hope the project will start in the Fall 2009 semester, which will consist of closing Nasatir Hall and Storm Hall, during which more than 30 classrooms housing up to 840 lecture seats will be unavailable.

“Both buildings will be completely renovated,” Ethan Singer, associate vice president of academic affairs, said. “The original plan calls for the construction to start next fall 8212; we are just waiting for approval of lease revenue bonds.”

Currently, discussions concerning the revenue bonds are taking place in Sacramento, which may end up delaying the project’s start until the Spring 2010 semester.

According to Singer, the same land allotment will be used in the construction to massively update the buildings.

“The buildings are fairly outdated, so the same lot will be used, but they will be completely reconfigured,” Singer said.

The classroom space lost during the projected two years planned will be allocated across multiple venues, according to Singer.

“While Nasatir Hall is being renovated, temporary classes will be used in both the Love Library and in the Library Addition,” Mark Lester, director of administration operations and communications, said. “Three rooms upstairs, likely on the fourth floor of the Love Library, and then just one room in the Library Addition.”

Lester also said the budget for this comes solely from the Academic Affairs office, not from the library’s budget.

Other places that will be used to compensate classrooms lost during the renovations include the Adams Humanities building and trailers. According to Singer, the trailers will be located across from the Exercise and Nutritional Science building.

“We are talking about the replacement of over 800 seats,” Singer said. “Trying to figure out how to accomplish that is a major effort.”

Costs for the building renovations are reportedly $55 million.

“Each building has a $55 million construction cost,” Lauren Cooper, interim director for facilities planning, design and construction, said.

“Any time the campus has an opportunity to provide new or renovate an existing facility, the project helps to provide more modern facilities for our students,” Cooper said.

In addition to modernizing the buildings, the new changes will also offer the chance to upgrade the buildings to be more “green,” too.

“In addition, the project will enable more smart classrooms and offer an opportunity to upgrade building systems to provide a more sustainable building and more sustainable environmental systems,” she said.

Cooper also compared the changes to what the Geology Mathematics and Computer Science building had done during its most recent renovations.

When the project is done, two very large, new lecture halls will be available along with a food services facility where the CESAR geography labs currently are, which will be paid for by Aztec Shops.

“A 285-seat room will take the space of NH-100 and another 500-seat room will also be available,” Singer said. “There will also be additional faculty offices above NH-100.”