By Brooke King, Staff Writer
Frank Mezzanini, Vice President of Business and Finance, spent year planning the renovations for the Saint Leo campus, and now it is the Admission Building that is receiving a much needed transformation.
As one of the first buildings that visitors see as they arrive on the Saint Leo campus, the Admissions building will double as the visitors center and admission headquarters. As the renovations are taking place, admission and security will temporarily be placed in the Marmion Center. As the Marmion Center’s size being an issue, some of the admission staff will be relocated to the lower level of Saint Edwards Hall. The drama productions and all other activities that took place in the Marmion Center will be moved to the new Music trailer (located across from Plant Operations) and to Selby Auditorium. While this does present a scheduling problem, Mezzanini is confident that any scheduling issues can be resolved with the current space available on campus.
Although the new admission building is still in the beginning stages of planning, applying for permits,and finalizing blueprint layout, the new building will resemble the exterior academic elegance of the Donald A. Tapia Business Building. It will take the existing structure of the admission building, the gazebo, and the security building; and infuse all three into one encompassing structure. The only standing structure that is to be disassembled and torn down will be the gazebo area. The long term goal of the new building is make it an admissions building only, moving the security to a different location entirely. “We don’t want to spend a lot of money remodeling security and then three years from now gut it all out. It’s just a waste of money. That’s why we’re phasing it all in,” said Mezzanini. At this point, Mezzanini is not sure where security will be placed after the structure is complete, so for the short term security will be inside the new admission building.
“It takes two year from starting to plan to starting construction. We should have been in construction now, but because of some issues on price we’re not quite ready to begin construction. Scotts'[ the contractor that Saint Leo has tasked out for the admission building] original estimate started out well over 2 million dollars and is now at 1.8 million, but the board only approved 1.5, so that is why we are not expanding any of the building because, well, it’s just too expensive,” said Mezzanini about the keeping of the original structure and the delayed start of construction.
The building is scheduled to be under construction by the end of the Spring 2012 semester and will not be completed until Summer 2013. Mezzanini and his dream team of contractors have conjured up another beautiful addition to the already aesthetically pleasing academic atmosphere on campus. The Admissions building will stand, ready and waiting to greet the incoming freshman class of 2013.
