Creighton Grows Up By Holly Morris Assistant Editor

Unfamiliar lumps and bumps, awkward driving situations and a lot of confusion: Creighton is having a growth spurt.

Changes planned for the main campus west of 24th Street are mostly complete. The Skutt Student Center and western section of the mall underwent makeovers, and new statues popped up like bronze mushrooms.

But current major construction projects, including two parking garages, a student living-learning center and the new junior-senior residence hall already named Opus Square, mean that a glance north, west or east reveals orange traffic cones, mounds of dirt and fleets of yellow construction machinery.

Those blemishes on the university’s developing figure are only temporary, however, and the student body has already begun to reap small benefits of the latest phase of campus transformation in the ways it lives, drives and plays.

Recent buzz about development mostly centers on the new garages and buildings. But attention to less obvious projects also matters, says Fran Angeroth, director of Contract Management and Design Services.

“All of the big projects get so much attention,” Angeroth said. “A lot of projects aren’t really noticeable but are just as important.”

Over the summer, Heider Hall began to be repainted, Angeroth said. A parking lot near the Medical Center that added hundreds of stalls was completed, easing congestion on the west side of campus. Another recent update primarily benefits the youngest members of the Creighton community — those attending day care at the Russell Child Development Center. The center acquired a sky shade, a large tent-like playground equipment cover that allows children to play outside on afternoons when hot weather once would have kept them inside with their coloring books.

The reasoning for campus change both small and large is twofold, said Lennis Pederson, associate vice president for Administration and director of Facilities Management. The first consideration is what structures will be used for. But it is also important to keep in mind where they are — making sure new projects and existing buildings have a common look.

“Opus is in the same family — a sister, really — of Davis Square,” Pederson said.

Connectivity is key to linking old structures to new ones, integrating the design hallmarks of recent structures like Morrison Stadium and Davis Square, with their characteristic brick walls and iron gates. Even the new parking garages will have a brick facade to meet design standards, said the Rev. John P. Schlegel, S.J., university president.

“They all reflect the standards that have been set for how campus will look so that if you arrive at campus from any way it looks like Creighton,” Angeroth said.

The hot, dry weather this season that added incentive to build the day care’s sky shade has done something else for campus development — it has smoothed the way for construction to proceed on schedule.

“The weather’s been very cooperative,” Pederson said. “The building of parking garages is on track.”

Concrete floors are being poured, and steel for the structures was expected to arrive Thursday. Concrete walls, precast elsewhere, are expected to arrive Nov. 1, Pederson said.

“We’re making some really nice progress,” Schlegel said. “It’s even a little ahead of schedule.”

The only major weather setback has come in the form of a hurricane. Opening of the ramp from Cuming Street to Highway 75, scheduled for completion at the end of August 2005, was postponed when Omaha Public Power District sent volunteers south to aid Hurricane Katrina repair efforts.

Depending on factors like continued cooperative weather and completion of utility work, some traffic difficulties should be resolved in coming weeks when one-way streets go two-way. Cuming Street is expected to go two-way Sept. 9, Pederson said. Burt Street will follow suit in mid-October.

Other driving and parking difficulties are related to the 21st Street demolition. Those problems should disappear with the PVC pipes piled near the Epsen Hillmer building, which will be laid beneath 21st Street, relocating a sewer line currently running underneath the Epsen Hillmer building and Opus Square sites, Pederson said.

The tearing down of Epsen Hillmer itself is expected to begin in mid-October. A yet-unnamed student living-learning center is planned to rise in its place.

“We are gradually changing how we function as a community with the building,” Schlegel said. “It’s all student-focused, so I’m pretty pleased with the way it’s going.”