The new main campus building project for Ivy Tech Community College in Columbus is on schedule, although officials are still working to lower costs on the project, which is currently $2 million over budget. The project’s original cost, including building and landscaping, was $32 million.
“Normally, when you do a building, and especially when you have design architects as creative as IwamotoScott, you’re going to be over budget,” said Chancellor Steven Combs at Tuesday’s Ivy Tech board of trustees meeting. “And we anticipated we would be over budget. We were over budget with our initial schematic design two weeks ago by $6 million. … Within a week and a half, we’d already got that down $4 million, so now we’re $2 million over.”
Combs said that as part of the work to lower overruns, the college has chosen to reduce the building’s total size from 82,600 square feet to 79,800 square feet.
“The key is we didn’t lose square footage in our instructional space,” he said.
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Combs added that the college is working to lower the cost to so that the project will be only about $1 million over budget. He said they are “close” to reaching that goal.
He attributed the cost overruns to factors such as high design, upgraded building materials and unique structural features.
“Every time you take out a bell or a whistle, it hurts a little bit when you’re trying to do something really special, but … respecting the needs of our students and making sure we provide the best education we possibly can, in terms of educational opportunities, is what’s important,” said board member Jesse Brand.
Some of the ways the college was able to cut down costs included reevaluating brick options, reducing the number of windows, taking 6 feet off the building’s east side and “optimizing the floorplan to reduce the amount of materials needed for plumbing, electrical and HVAC,” Combs said. The project’s architects and engineers were involved in finding plans to reduce costs.
The college also chose to decrease width for hallways while still staying within the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Combs said that the project is in its last week of the schematic design phase.
“Hopefully, we can move from schematic design on Friday into design development, which is further fleshing out the space, identifying everything that goes in the spaces, all the equipment and really dive into that, starting the week after next,” he said.
Combs said the project is on schedule for completion in fall of 2022. Ivy Tech plans to break ground this winter, either in late 2020 or early 2021. He said there will be a community ceremony to mark the occasion.
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In February of 2020, Ivy Tech selected IwamotoScott Architecture of San Francisco to design its new main campus building in Columbus. A grant from Cummins Foundation Architecture Program will pay the architectural design fee for Ivy Tech’s new building.
The new main campus building at the Columbus AirPark will serve students in Bartholomew, Decatur, Jackson and Jennings counties. The $32 million, 79,800-square foot structure will replace the aging Poling Hall.
Combs said earlier this year that the project isn’t just a new main campus building, but actually a completely new campus for Ivy Tech — Columbus, with the new building becoming the entryway to the AirPark and to the entire Learning Center campus.
The architect of record for the project is CSO Architects, and the contractor is Pepper Construction. Both are based in Indianapolis.
More information on the building process can be viewed at the project’s website, ournewcampus.org.
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