Issue date: 9/17/08 Section: NEWS

Construction on the Fort Worth Health Science Center's Building A will begin in January.

NT plans to build two new buildings at the Fort Worth Health Science Center as well as a green area that are slated to be completed by 2010.

Tentatively called Building A and Building B, the new centers will have classrooms, at least one cafeteria and offices along with study areas and medical training facilities, said Rich Escalante, NT system vice chancellor for administrative services

Building A will be built first and is the main concentration of the project. The second building will be planned more extensively when more money becomes available through tuition revenue, bonds, grants and state assistance.

Escalante said NT expects to start moving steel and begin construction on the $29 million Building A project by January.

The building will eventually have five floors, but only two will be built at first with the other three to follow after they can be paid for.

Included in the price of that project is a large green area, or quad, with trees.

The project was made possible with the closing of the Osteopathic Medical Center of Texas, which is nestled alongside campus buildings. The hospital was demolished and freed up room for NT to expand the campus in its narrow confines.

Among the main features of the 114,000-square-foot Building A are more places to gather and study or socialize, including common areas and a cafeteria.

"You won't find many areas where students gather right now," Escalante said. "We're designing our buildings to encourage people to gather because we've found that a lot of learning occurs when students get together outside of class."

At least one student agreed.

"I'm definitely excited to get a cafeteria because we don't have anywhere to hang out," said Hayley Harris, a first-year student at the campus' Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Harris said students often don't have anywhere to sit when they eat at the hot dog and sandwich vendor they buy food from, which is their only such option on campus for food.

In addition to leisure areas, there will be two 250-seat classrooms with a wall down the center that can be moved to create one 500-seat lecture hall.

"This will allow the Fort Worth campus to increase its enrollment and in bring in more researchers to speak and hold bigger lectures," Escalante said.

The campus has about 1,100 students, most of which are graduate students.

There are also plans to re-open a parking garage on campus that closed when the hospital closed, something Harris said would help students who arrive later on campus and have trouble finding parking.

There campus' master plan also calls for trees and medians on Montgomery Street, which bisects the campus.

The quad green space is one of four according to the Master Plan, which also calls for campus gardens and water features such as a fountain or decorative pools, though those plans are still a few years from fruition, Escalante said.

He said NT doesn't plan this to be an urban sea of concrete, but rather an attractive campus where students can gather.

"We're beginning to build a real campus," Escalante said

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