April 18, 2008
New Mexico Business Weekly
Rebuilding a universityUNM's unprecedented construction boom
Thomas Munro, NMBW Staffhttp://eastbay.bizjournals.com/slideshow/1622111.html?page=1
Capital expenditures are being made in unprecedented volumes at the University of New Mexico as the school takes leaping strides toward a national profile.
According to an Office of Capital Projects report, there are 170 active capital projects ongoing, 41 of them in the major project price tag category -- more than $500,000. Of the 1.7 million square feet involved, 1.5 million is in major projects. Current projects have a total cost of about $381 million, with 93 percent of that going to the majors.
The graphic accompanying this story includes the largest projects and a sampling of smaller ones.
Rick Henrard, group manager for major projects, said the capital projects budget has doubled in five years and increased even more over the past 10.
"The leadership is definitely more proactive," said Director of Capital Projects Bill Turner.
He said there has been a much greater willingness to bond facilities in recent years, rather than relying on state funding. This dramatically broadens the possibilities for new construction.
Turner said the new construction is all about being competitive with other research institutions -- not about growth in the size of the student body. President David Schmidly, who came to Albuquerque in 2007, has set as one of the university's goals membership in the American Association of Universities, which includes the country's top research universities.
A project like the replacement of the school's cramped, outdated physics and astronomy building with a facility potentially in the $50 million range would be just such a step toward national stature. The project will go on the drawing board when and if the current facility is demolished to make way for another expansion of the University of New Mexico Hospital.
Of all the building now under way or recently completed on campus, the most notable piece of construction to emerge so far might be the new architecture building. Turner said its unique look is part of a broader effort to enhance the university's Central Avenue frontage. That effort will even reach across the street through the renovation of the old School of Architecture and Planning facilities.
The university also is rapidly expanding throughout the city and state. Planning has begun for a recently-funded Rio Rancho campus, and some sort of facility is expected at Mesa del Sol. Campuses in Taos and Gallup also are recieving increased attention.
Continuing to finance this level of buildout will depend on ongoing voter support, because, Turner said, almost nothing is solely state-funded. Voters have reliably approved the general obligation bonds that fund the bulk of construction in the past, but a change this year that will split education and health care projects has university officials nervous. Turner's office, which is planning for all contingencies, will have to wait until November to know whether the school's current, ambitious capital plan will come to fruition in its current form.
tmunro@bizjournals.com | 348-8306