Three months into Ivy Tech Community College — Columbus’ new campus building project, the structure is starting to take shape.
Chancellor Steven Combs, trustees and other personnel visited the construction site, with Pepper Construction giving updates on the work following a campus board meeting on Tuesday.
Project Manager Jase Harmon said that workers are about halfway or more through the structural steel phase.
“We are running a little behind,” he said. “The market is crazy right now.”
However, the construction is only a week behind schedule at the moment.
A timeline on the project’s website estimates that interior work will begin this fall, with the new building complete in spring of 2022. The first steel beam was set on May 18.
Poling Hall’s demolition is expected to take place this time next year, with the college already occupying the new building, Combs said.
The contractors don’t plan on having the building’s landscaping done until about September or October, he added.
“It’s just going to be such a drastic change to our landscape,” he said, in regards to the new building and demolition of the old. “…The part that finally gets highlighted now is really the quad. It really pops — that becomes the central point of our campus, whereas before it’s just been forgotten.”
Members of the public can take a look at the construction site by using the webcam option on ournewcampus.org, or using a view port on the People Trail, Combs added. The webcam is a live view and can be manipulated by the user to zoom in and out on specific points.
In regards to the building’s capital campaign, $720,000 has been pledged and/or received, said Executive Director of Development Therese Copeland.
Director of Marketing Chris Schilling has said in the past that state dollars for the project are $29.89 million, and the college is authorized to spend almost $32.88 million with fundraising.
There has been a particularly exciting contribution to the building project that the college hopes to announce soon, said Copeland.
“Our generous donor has asked that we hold off on that announcement until logistics are figured out, but we have a very significant gift,” she said.
The college plans to have a “steel topping ceremony” this fall to celebrate the last steel beam being put in. This will likely take place at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 — and, unlike the virtual and pre-recorded groundbreaking ceremony, members of the public will be able to attend.
“We are going to bring the community in,” she said. “We’ll be outside. We’ll have a tent in case there’s bad weather. But it’ll be an opportunity to celebrate the building and where it’s at. And it’s a signing. So people can sign that, and it can be a permanent installation.”
