SUNY’s 64 campuses across New York State have a presence in nearly every community in the state. The amount of facilities needed to house nearly 500,000 students and 90,000 staff is indeed large, as SUNY’s physical assets are comprised of 2,887 buildings and infrastructure that cover nearly 102 million square feet throughout the state. But most of these buildings were constructed between 40 and 50 years ago. The need for modernization and improvements leads to renovation opportunities across the board.
This past year, 2014 saw a number of renovations and grand opening ceremonies across SUNY, from classrooms, housing facilities, research centers and more. We’ve researched some of these and provided resources to learn more about each below.
SUNY Cobelskill – Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources
SUNY Cobleskill celebrated the grand opening of its new Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, October 24, 2014. The new Center will provide distinctive facilities for animal science, plant science, environmental science, and fisheries and wildlife. The building incorporates many specialized features, boasting 8,000 square feet of greenhouses, a conservatory, a USDA meat processing lab, cold and warm water fish hatcheries, and laboratories for animal science, mammalogy, herpetology, ornithology, botany, soil science, and plant pathology.
SUNY Buffalo State – Houston Gym
On October 17, 2014, SUNY Buffalo State celebrated their 25.7 million renovations completion to Houston Gymnasium. The renovated 54 year old building located on the West side of the Buffalo State campus will include new locker rooms, a refurbished swimming pool, new labs, classrooms, and offices accommodations for their Health and Wellness Department. This new and improved facility is “how Buffalo State continues to provide cutting-edge facilities for our students while still keeping tuition affordable,” said Buffalo State President Katherine S. Conway-Turner.
SUNY Oneonta – Fitzelle Hall
On the first day of SUNY Oneanota’s fall semester, Monday August 25th, 2014, the ribbon cutting for the new and improved Fitzelle Hall took place. Fitzelle Hall is the largest academic building and the first building on campus to meet the sustainability standards for LEED Silver certification. The renovated building will use 20% less energy and 10% of the steel, aluminum, glass and other building materials used in the project were recycled.
SUNY Geneseo – Bailey Science Building
The 50 year old Bailey Science Building underwent a 23-million renovation that was completed in just two years. The new 120,000 sq. ft. building is now an energy-efficient facility that includes heat-pump technology, the uses Energy Star equipment and natural light treatments such as skylights illuminate interior spaces. “Like all of our newer buildings, we incorporated energy-efficiency into the new Bailey to support our campus sustainability initiatives,” said Carol S. Long, President of SUNY Geneseo.
SUNY Geneseo – Letchworth Hall
The Letchworth Dining Hall started its $17 million renovation two years ago and has now reopened it as Letchworth Dining Complex with food options to satisfy most any taste and dietary need. SUNY Carol S. Long, Geneseo’s interim president, said “It’s a place where students and faculty and others will gather as a community in the classic liberal arts tradition that characterizes Geneseo. I congratulate all who helped transform Letchworth into something very special.”
SUNY Cobleskill – Alumni Commons Residential Housing Complex
SUNY Cobleskill along side with the SUNY Cobleskill Alumni Association celebrated their grand opening of the College’s brand-new, apartment-style housing complex, Alumni Commons on September 27, 2014. Alumni Commons was a project that began on May 1st, 2013. “The new residential commons will offers our students exceptional private living accommodations where students can be comfortable, safe and build friendships which will last a lifetime,” said Steven M. Ackerknecht, Vice President of Student Affairs at SUNY Cobleskill.
SUNY Albany – State-of-the-Art Data Center
The University at Albany inaugurated a new advanced-capacity Information Technology Building and Data Center, housing the equipment and systems to support the computing, research, information, storage, and telecommunications services for the University on September 30, 2014. The $29.3 million refurbishing project will support the expanding research, academic and business needs of the campus community,” said UAlbany Chief Information Officer Christine Haile.
SUNY Cortland – Bowers Hall
Bowers Hall’s renovation broke ground in 2012 and opened its doors on April 25, 2014. The facility brings several technological updates to Bowers Hall classrooms, laboratories and the building’s state of the art planetarium. Modernized additions also include a long laptop docking station and an open student lounge area off the first-floor lobby.
SUNY Cortland – Dowd Center
The return of the Dowd Fine Arts Center took place on October 24, 2014. The beautiful theatre that took two years to renovate was inaugurated with the return of the musical “Brigadoon,” a 1940s Broadway classic.
Binghamton University – New Admission Center
On November 13, 2014, Binghamton University happily announced the grand-opening of their new Admission Center. This new Admission Center provides “a perfect way to welcome applicants and visitors, offering a first impression of a university that tells them immediately. “This facility will serve as a one-stop shop for students and families involved in various processes, and making those processes easier and more inviting ensures satisfaction from applicants and current students alike,” said Interim Director of Undergraduate Admissions Randall Edouard.
As SUNY takes aim at graduating 150,000 students per year by 2020, we are asking the State to #InvestinSUNY by enabling us to create for our campuses an Investment Fund to support the scale up of evidence-based programs known to support student success. We are also seeking an extension of NYSUNY 2020 and rational tuition. Students want a continued rational tuition policy so they can plan to finance the full, known cost of a full degree program – but they can only commit to their share if the state also does its part.
Learn more at suny.edu/invest
SUNY Farmingdale has tons of projects! Looks so much better!
SUNY Orange’s Rowley Center for Science and Engineering building officially opened in September 2014 also.
Don’t forget about SUNY Potsdam’s state of the art Performing Arts Center
SUNY Brockport has a brand new Liberal Arts Building that officially opened in September 2014.