Posted on: Friday, March 4, 2005
Kaua'i college planning $16 million 'nerve center'
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
PUHI, Kaua'i — Kaua'i Community College has a campus without a center.
It's a cluster of red-roofed buildings with no obvious entry point. Offices are scattered. In some areas it's congested; in others not. When you pass it on Kaumuali'i Highway, you're looking at the backs of the buildings.
"In terms of architecture, the college has no front," said chancellor Peggy Cha.
A new two-phase college One Stop Center is being planned to change that.
"This will become the gateway, the welcoming open door," she said.
Consultants are preparing an environmental impact statement for the $16 million project. The $8.3 million first phase is funded. The $7.7 million phase two is not.
The architecture firm AM Partners of Honolulu said it plans a 33,000-square-foot, two-story first-phase building.
Cha said she anticipates it will include administration offices, a campus center, meeting rooms, a career counseling center, testing center and more.
"We've never had a student services or administration building, and we've actually had to do placement testing in a hallway," Cha said.
The consultants say the One Stop Center "will centralize essential functions of the college that are now housed in a variety of buildings throughout the campus. It will also act as the front door of the campus, as well as the 'nerve center' and provide a gathering place for college events."
If funded, the 32,500-square-foot second phase would include classrooms, spaces for noncredit classes and a new home for the campus bookstore.
Moving services into the new buildings will open up their old offices to additional classrooms and other facilities, Cha said.
AM Partners estimates the first phase involves a year-and-a-half construction time. The first phase could be open in early 2007, said the firm's Jennifer Kim. For more information call Kim at (808) 526-2828, ext 240.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
