The timeline for the launch of the Wilson Library improvement project, scheduled to begin in August 2024, will now be extended. As Facilities Services staff worked through the project’s design and planning stages, it was determined that the cost estimates surpassed the allocated budget.
As announced last October, the library would have been closed during construction, with most special collections materials placed in storage and unavailable for use.
The project timeline extension means that the library will remain open, and materials, staff and program space will continue to be available to the campus community.
“We are extending the timeline with an eye toward doing the work more strategically and more comprehensively,” said Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Nate Knuffman. “I understand how this delay can be frustrating, but we want to do it the right way, and it is still a high priority.”
Delaying the start of construction allows library and facilities planning staff to develop a Libraries Space Master Plan that will help:
- Review and re-envision the physical spaces and service models of the libraries at a high level for our campus.
- Better understand opportunities and needs for off-site storage of library materials.
- Develop a pathway to holistically improve and maintain library facilities.
- Inform priorities for the capital planning budget process.
- Align library construction projects to inform an updated Campus Master Plan.
The RFQ for firms to provide design services for the Libraries Space Master Plan has been posted, and a firm will be selected by the end of March 2024. The selected firm will be asked to develop the plan before the end of calendar year 2024 to help inform priorities for capital planning.
“There will be an opportunity for library staff and our campus community to engage in the planning effort to help inform the libraries’ future,” said Knuffman of the Libraries Space Master Planning process.
Knuffman said that the University will make the Wilson Library improvement project a top priority — hopefully expanded to include projects as scoped in the library master plan as well — in the legislative capital planning request for 2025.