Armed with funds from the Texas Legislature and expected dollars from the University of Texas System, UTPB is embarking on a campus transformation.
Sandra Woodley, president of UT Permian Basin, said this is an important project that they have been working on for a number of years.
“… Fortunately, we’ve received some funding from the state legislature. We received about $45 million from the legislature and we expect to receive some additional funds from the University of Texas System to help us completely renovate this building, the Mesa Building, but also to help us facilitate the campus transformation project,” Woodley said.
The university is in the planning stages of the transformation with a campus transformation team including Parkhill, Christy Ten Eyck, landscape architects, Ecosystem Design Group, Lake Flato and RSM Design, which is creating signage and wayfinding signs.
“There are five key components to that. First is the Bright Stars Memorial Plaza. You may remember the gift from the city that came over, so we will be facilitating a plaza for our 50th anniversary … and part of the plaza will be the Bright Stars Memorial art piece, and then all the things surrounding that. Tentatively, that will be on the corner of the campus where ‘The Stragglers’ are now. …,” Woodley said.
“We’re working on the design for that. We expect to have that by the end of the spring and get started on that. We also have a redesign of our quad in the middle between all of our campus buildings. That’s a really important project for the students and for the faculty to make sure that we have a sense of place and a sense of belonging. It will include outdoor learning spaces; community gathering spaces as well. We expect that quad design to be really transformational in the way that the students congregate and work together. And also, the way that the community comes in and experiences the university.
“Part of that design will also include the Mesa Deck. We have that huge deck, so having easy access from the quad to the deck and transforming that space for the community and for learning will be a really important part of that project, as well,” she said.
“The campus influences welcoming the community onto the campus, the signage both externally at the entrances, but also in and around the campus, the wayfinding, is an important part of the project. And finally, wildlife areas hike and bike trails, and also working on water containment, both for the city and for our campus. That ditch that goes all around and some natural playas will be transformed for beauty for the walking paths, but also for function; making sure that we can reduce the flooding and it take care of that for multiple purposes. So those are kind of the five key components of the campus transformation and all of those components are currently being designed. We expect to have the final design completed by the end of the spring and then we’ll kick off in the summer,” Woodley said.
Plans are also to completely renovate the Mesa Building. Woodley said they don’t have a design team for that yet, but they have a request for proposals out and ready to go.
“We’ll be selecting firms that will help us design the functional learning spaces and redoing the office spaces, the wayfinding, classrooms spaces,” Woodley said.
The Mesa Building was the first building on campus, aside from the Founders Building.
Everything will be renovated in it, including electrical, mechanical and life and safety components such as new elevators.
“It’s exciting to be able to take this almost 50 year old building and bring her up to the functionality and the beauty of our Kirk Edwards building and our engineering building. We’re very thankful to the legislature and to the UT System Board of Regents for investing in these really important projects,” Woodley said.
Part of the transformation also includes the Mesa Deck.
Woodley said they are aiming for multi-functionality for the deck. Some of it may be enclosed for an indoor-outdoor space, meeting and multi-purpose space.
“Some of it will be expanded for really innovative outdoor-indoor learning opportunities for classes. And that’s true of the quad as well; ways to take the classroom outside; and gathering spaces for the community. We don’t yet have the design on that, but they’re really looking at multiple purposes for making sure that that big, beautiful deck is functional,” Woodley said.
“Right now, there’s no shading. There’s nowhere to sit. There’s no … reason to be up there, per se. We have a cafe there on the second floor that can serve that , as well. And we need an easy way for people to get on and off the deck and to be able to view what’s going on in the quad. Right now, the railings are concrete. You can’t see down. They’re not to code. There’s a lot of construction that will have to happen to make it functional. But we really want to make sure that it is a warm, inviting space for the community and for the campus, as well, and that it flows directly on to the quad so it’s very easy to see what’s going on both up and down,” she added.
The team working on this project is nationally renowned.
“… They have worked on really amazing projects all over the U.S. They’ve got a lot of experience. Ten Eyck landscape architects, that’s the group that did the campus transformation at UTEP. We took a road trip out there to see what they did there and it was just (a) really amazing opportunity to provide beautiful spaces for the community and for the campus. We expect it to be really great here, too,” Woodley said.
Part of the campus master plan includes an arena.
“That will be on the back here on … the opposite corner. We already have the arena designed and planned (to) have multi-use out there,” Woodley added.
“The arena would be used for community events, but also the sports tourism initiative that we have going on here at UTPB. We can host tournaments and the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center Center can bring in music events and other events into that arena. Right now, the assessment came in at around 6,500 to 7,000 seats is the size of the facility that would complement all of the other facilities that we have in the Permian Basin,” she said.
“I think the project is about $70 million in the first iteration. It’ll take us a while to continue with the planning on that and to raise the money to do it. But that is our goal is to have the arena scheduled for that. Then we will use the existing basketball court as intramural and practice facility. …,” Woodley added.
She noted that UTPB has a 10 to 20-year facilities master plan that includes many other athletic venues . “We have a plan to put a football arena on our site here and we also have a plan for a new championship baseball-softball complex, kind of similar to where we have it now. We haven’t completed the design on that facility yet like we have on the basketball arena. But those are in our long-term plan, as well as improving the current sports fields for sports tourism,” Woodley said.
She added that they are gearing up for a capital campaign for the campus transformation and other needed facilities. They will be working on the campaign over the next five years.
“Fortunately, with the money from the UT System and the legislature, we have a really good start, at least on the campus transformation, but it won’t fund everything that we want to do,” Woodley said.
The recent addition of the D. Kirk Edwards Family Human Performance Center raises the stakes because it is state of the art from the classroom to the student experience.
She added that the Mesa Building, which serves as the academic and administrative anchor for the campus, can now be brought up to standard with the funds they have.
“It’s going to be a really great opportunity for students and our faculty and our staff to be in the spaces that really are functional and beautiful,” Woodley said.
A separate Basin-wide project is the Wildcatters’ Trail, a 20-mile hiking, biking, multi-modal transportation project that will trailhead at the UPTB campus but run to the Midland campus near the engineering building, around the airport to Scharbauer Sports Stadium.
Woodley said UTPB is a key leader on this venture, but it’s not the only one. The Quality of Place Initiative in Odessa and Midland are working on that. Woodley leads a group that is working on those types of initiatives.
“The Wildcatters’ trail is one really important project within a cluster of projects that are going … to enhance the quality of place and the quality of life in the Permian Basin,” she added.
