SPH Renovation Announcement

As you may have guessed by the sudden influx of construction workers around the school, the renovation of the SPH Building has begun. For pictures and other interesting materials, visit the renovation web site at http://sph.umd.edu/about/building_renovations/index.cfm. Here's the official announcement:

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The School of Public Health (SPH) at the University of Maryland College Park recently began a year-long, $15 million renovation. The project will, for the first time, bring all SPH operations under one roof as well as improve the building's energy efficiency and enable the planned expansion of the school.

"The School of Public Health is growing, not only in our numbers of students and faculty but also in our opportunities to advance public health in Maryland and around the world," said Dr. Robert S. Gold, Dean of the School of Public Health. "This renovation will enable us to come together as a school, creating new opportunities for collaboration and allowing us to take on new challenges in our diverse fields of study."

Specifically, the renovation project will transform an under-utilized basketball gym and racquetball courts in the School of Public Health Building into 27,565 NASF (Net Assignable Square Feet) of necessary office space (18,717 NASF) and research labs (5,198 NASF).

The renovated building will feature a more accessible Dean's Suite, a 1,100 square foot student lounge, an architecturally enhanced entry way and an improved traffic flow pattern within the building via a new stairwell.

"The conversion of these under-utilized spaces will allow the school to address some serious problems with the building's current design and use," said Adam Shervanian, Assistant Director of Facilities and Services for the SPH. "Once the renovation is complete, we will have more space for our growing numbers of faculty and staff, easier movement through the building and a new HVAC system for the renovated space."

As SPH expects to grow significantly in the next decade, the renovation will provide new space for 33 additional full-time faculty, two additional part-time faculty/staff, and 160 graduate and teaching assistants.

Most notably, the renovation will for the first time bring the entire School of Public Health under one roof, as the Department of Family Science and its 30 faculty and staff will move from Marie Mount Hall into a newly created office suite in the SPH Building.

Moving the Department of Family Science into the building will allow for a better use of resources, enable greater collaboration, and end the more than half mile walk or drive for students and professors between the two buildings (see the map for more). This move will also release 12,387 NASF in Marie Mount Hall to help meet critical campus space shortages.

"We are particularly excited about the new research labs and the state of the art couple and family therapy clinic for the Center for Healthy Families," said Dr. Elaine A. Anderson, Chair of the Department of Family Science. "Being located in the same building as the rest of the School will enable us to partner more easily with our colleagues in public health while continuing to offer quality training to our graduate and undergraduate students."

The renovation will also perform necessary updates on the SPH Building's HVAC System. The project will install a chiller and other new pieces of equipment in the Satellite Central Utilities Building (SCUB)--located next door in the Eppley Recreation Center--as well as install piping to the newly converted spaces.

As much of the building either does not currently have air-conditioning or has inefficient stand-alone air-conditioning systems, these updates will not only provide air-conditioning for the renovated portions of the building but also a much more energy efficient and reliable approach than installing stand-alone systems.

For more information about the renovation, please visit the renovation Web site at http://sph.umd.edu/about/building_renovations/index.cfm