The DLR Group unveiled the final diagram of their proposed renovation plans before Fullerton College officials, staff and campus community at the final Measure J campus forum Tuesday afternoon. The forum offered those in attendance a glimpse at what the FC campus will look like in the future, however many questions were left unanswered.
“Right now the rendering is just an architectural rendering with a couple buildings on it to mark this is where they will be,” said Richard Storti, Vice President of Administrative Services.
Lead architects from the DLR Group, Michael Stephens and Andrea Cohen-Gehring, highlighted the major projects that will be involved.
According to Stephens, the renovations will be focused on building a new FC welcome center, a state of the art performing arts complex, a parking structure and completing Sherbeck Field.
The proposed location of the new welcome center will be where the current performing arts classrooms and campus theater are located. The existing theater and performing arts classrooms will be replaced by a brand new performing arts complex located where the sculpture garden and administration building is, on the other side of Chapman Boulevard.
The plan for Sherbeck Field is to make it a full-fledged football stadium, which would allow the Hornets football and soccer teams to play home games on campus. Currently the football team plays their home games at Shapell Stadium in Yorba Linda. It is still uncertain when the stadium will be finished, but officials from the athletics department are hoping to play at Sherbeck Field in 2017.
The location of the new parking structure is still unclear, but they aim to create additional space for common areas and classrooms by replacing some of the small parking lots around campus with the three-story structure.
FC staff members from the art, humanities and athletic departments were on hand. They all offered reasons why their building or department renovation should be given priority or started first. Their questions were taken into consideration, but no timetable was provided.
Storti, Stephens and Cohen-Gehring made it clear that at this time they do not have sequencing or project timelines in place. Storti however, reassured forum participants that he had full confidence in the DLR Group’s ability to prioritize and carry out each project efficiently.
There will be one more community forum on Wednesday in rooms 224-228 at 5 p.m. The DLR Group will take the comments and questions from both forums before finalizing their plans.
Once complete, the DLR Group must submit their final proposed plans to the city of Fullerton for an environmental impact review. According to FC officials, that process could take up to one year to receive approval.