About 70 UF students sat in the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom on Thursday night to discuss plans to rebuild their second homes on campus.
The meeting, which addressed rebuilding La Casita and the Institute of Black Culture, was hosted by the Hispanic Student Association and the Black Student Union. The project’s architects presented their ideas for the buildings and received students’ input about the institutes’ future. The architects, of engineering company DLR Group, visited campus Thursday to gather input from students outside the Reitz Union.
The architects also met with the Multicultural and Diversity Affairs staff and student ambassadors to hear their ideas, said Mary Kay Carodine, the assistant vice president for Student Affairs. Construction will begin in Summer and end Spring 2018.
Chris Osore, a DLR group designer and the project overseer, said each building will have at least two floors and an assembly area able to seat about 120 people. Both buildings should include a living area, storage rooms, computer rooms, offices and study rooms, but final designs are not complete.
Although the buildings will have the same basic facilities, the design will be different for each group.
“We’re trying to infuse the cultural elements that make them unique,” Osore said. “The buildings will speak of the actual users.”
Carodine said the buildings are being reconstructed because structural damage made them unsafe for students.
“There are some issues in the houses, to say the least,” Carodine said.
Both buildings, located on University Avenue, were built as houses in 1921. The halls were too narrow for wheelchairs, and the damaged wood of La Casita’s balcony had to be closed because it couldn’t hold more than a few students at a time, she said.
Carodine said the building’s size will be doubled, from about 3,000 square feet to 6,000 square feet.
Because of the larger size, the budget increased in December from $3.2 million to $5.2 million, she said. The construction will be financed by the Capital Improvement Trust Fund, which is funded through student fees and is designated for buildings used by students.
Carodine said the buildings will have elevators and larger bathrooms with multiple stalls.
Sophia Visent, a UF business sophomore, said she visited La Casita often. She attended the meeting so she could have a say in the project.
“These are our second homes, in a sense,” the 19-year-old said. “I feel appreciative of the fact that they held this meeting for us and that they, overall, wanted our opinion.”
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UF students sit in the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom on Thursday night to discuss plans to rebuild La Casita and the Institute of Black Culture. Construction will begin in Summer and end Spring 2018.
