Spring Brings Museum Opening And Start Of New Engineering Building

Jan. 30, 2001

SPRING BRINGS MUSEUM OPENING AND START OF NEW ENGINEERING BUILDING

DALLAS (SMU) -- Spring 2001 will bring the formal opening of the new Meadows Museum and the start of work on the Jerry R. Junkins Electrical Engineering Building as construction activities continue at Southern Methodist University.

The Meadows Museum is expected to be finished in late February so the building may "breathe" for a month before its formal dedication on March 25. The breathing process allows fumes from glues and paints to dissipate so the works of art placed there will not be damaged. Information on the new museum's dedication is available on the Internet at http://www.smu.edu/~meadows/museum.

Construction of the Junkins Building will begin in mid-March, immediately affecting those who use the temporary parking lot created between Caruth Hall and Airline Road. Following spring break, those who have been parking there may use either the Moody Garage or Dedman 3 Lot, which is located south of Dedman Center.

The new Junkins Building, due for completion by fall 2002, will be located on the west side of Airline Road between SMU Boulevard and Dyer Street. It will be a three-story, 53,664-square-foot facility housing classrooms, faculty and graduate student offices, and instructional and research laboratories. It will include a semiconductor and optoelectronics laboratory, a signal processing and wireless communications lab, a speech and image processing lab, a microwave and microstrip antenna lab, a networking telecommunications lab and a biomedical research lab.

In fall 2001, construction of the Laura Lee Blanton Student Services Building will begin adjacent to the Junkins Building on Airline Road. The Blanton Building, due for completion in spring 2003, will house Information Technology Services and Enrollment Services.

Construction-related traffic for the Junkins Building and the Blanton Building will enter and exit the campus along SMU Boulevard.

The new buildings are among a series of construction projects that are enhancing SMU's educational, cultural and recreational assets. Other projects and their status are:

PARKING FACILITIES	The Airline Garage, on the southeast corner of Daniel Avenue and Airline Road, is completed and open for use although work on landscaping around it is expected to continue into February. As part of the Airline-Daniel connection project, the Daniel-Airline intersection will remain temporarily closed until mid-March and access to the Airline Garage is from the south. Motorists should exercise extreme caution because a traffic barricade blocks the northbound lane of Airline at University Boulevard, requiring them to go north in the southbound lane to reach the garage. The Law School Garage, on the northeast corner of Hillcrest and Daniel Avenues, is scheduled for completion in August 2001. The 500-space garage will provide parking relief for SMU's northwest quadrant. Daniel will remain closed between Hillcrest and Athens Avenue until mid-March. Dedman Lot 3, located south of Dedman Center and formerly known as Lot W-5, will be repaired and restriped. Anticipated completion date is mid-March.
NEW FACILITIES	Dedman Life Sciences Building, on Airline Road south of Daniel Avenue, will be completed by the start of classes for spring 2002. The three-story building will be one of the most modern and technologically advanced facilities of its kind in the region. Traffic flow along Airline in the vicinity of the project will be restricted, and occasionally disrupted, during the duration of the project.
STREET MODIFICATIONS	Airline Road-Daniel Avenue connection is a joint SMU-City of University Park project being supervised by the city and due for completion in spring 2001. As part of this project, the Daniel-Airline intersection will be temporarily closed until mid-March.
COMPLETED PROJECTS	Gerald J. Ford Stadium at Airline Road and Mockingbird Lane is open, although some minor work remains. Paul B. Loyd Jr. All Sports Center on Ownby Drive north of Mockingbird Lane is open, although some minor work remains. Meadows Garage on Bishop Boulevard north of Mockingbird Lane has been completed. This 500-space garage is helping relieve parking congestion at the southern end of the campus. Fondren Library Center, which connects Fondren Library with the Science and Engineering Library, has been completed. Perkins Chapel Renovation is completed. The chapel supports teaching and research in Perkins School of Theology and serves as a place of community worship. Airline Road-Dublin Street connection has been completed.

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