Sam Shanmugan has been sitting in his office in Kansas University’s Snow Hall, waiting for the call that will tell him he can move into his new office in Eaton Hall.

The call hasn’t come yet.

“We’re all completely boxed up,” said Shanmugan, professor of electrical engineering and computer science. “I’m like a small kid who wants a toy and opens up a box he just packed — except I don’t know where any of my files are, which boxes.”

Eaton Hall, adjacent to Learned Hall, still is surrounded by construction equipment, with crews working to finish the building by the first day of the fall semester, which is Aug. 21.

Another major project, the Student Fitness Recreation Center, won’t be completed until mid-September, two months after its original target date for completion.

Add to the mix finishing touches on the Dole Institute of Politics, which opened to the public last month after a flurry of last-minute activity, and $12 million in renovations at Ellsworth residence hall, and KU has seen a near-perfect storm of construction projects all being finished in late summer and early fall.

“I’ve never had four major projects come due in a 30- or 60-day period like this,” said Jim Modig, director of KU’s design and construction management, who has been at KU since 1979.

Eaton Hall

The biggest rush in the next few weeks, Modig said, will be to complete the $15 million, 80,000-square-foot Eaton Hall, which is scheduled to house classes and active laboratories this fall.

The School of Engineering didn’t schedule classes in the main lecture hall, which will seat 250 people, because of concerns about meeting the deadline, Modig said. The building initially was scheduled to be done Aug. 1, but the contractor, Ferrell Construction, had difficulty finding subcontractors to install Sheetrock.

Mary Chappel, director of recreation services, left, explains the new climbing wall to Vice Provost Marlesa Roney. The recreation center won't be ready for the start of school but is planned to open in September.

“I’m going to continue to remain optimistic that we’re going to have that done by the beginning of the fall semester,” Modig said. “Our major problem is we don’t have that many other classrooms (in other buildings) that are open to move the classes to.”

Shanmugan, the engineering professor, said he was looking forward to all the office and teaching operations for his department being in one building. Currently, operations are split between Learned Hall, near 15th Street and Naismith Drive, and Snow Hall on Jayhawk Boulevard. The building would be worth the wait if it’s just a few days or weeks late.

But, he conceded, “It’ll be most convenient if it’s going to be done on time.”

Rec center

Unlike Eaton Hall, no classes are scheduled for the Student Recreation Fitness Center. The $17 million, 100,000-square-foot facility south of Watkins Health Center will be reserved for students to use in their free time.

The recreation center, paid for by student fees, was scheduled to be done by July 31. But Mary Chappell, director of recreation services, said several construction hang-ups had delayed the opening until Sept. 15. The most recent was connecting the building with the university’s steam heating system.

The center, which will be free for student use and available for faculty and staff for a $250 annual fee, will feature an indoor track, four gymnasium courts, a rock climbing wall and cardio-fitness area, among other amenities. It will replace Robinson Gymnasium as the primary fitness spot for students.

“It’s a beautiful building, and it has a wonderful view,” Chappell said. “We’re so excited about it.”

Detail work

While they work to finish Eaton Hall and the recreation center, KU’s construction managers are putting the finishing touches on two other major projects.

The Dole Institute of Politics on the west campus, which was formally dedicated July 22, still has detail work to be completed, Modig said, such as repairing bubbles in carpet and finishing grout work in the floors.

“I don’t think anybody who was in there could tell there were things that needed touched up,” Modig said. “They’re things we tend to notice.”

On Daisy Hill, Ellsworth Hall renovations, which have been underway for two years, are nearing completion ahead of schedule. Floors 4 through 10 will be ready for students to move in Aug. 17, and the first, second and third floors will be ready in September or October. The second phase of the project wasn’t scheduled to be complete until December.

The renovations have converted the old, dorm-style rooms to suites. Templin and Lewis halls already have undergone the conversion, and Hashinger Hall, which is next on the list, is scheduled to be under construction from summer 2004 to fall 2006.

Upcoming projects

While Modig’s team is nearing the end of one set of projects, they’re gearing up for another set.

Construction will begin in September on the $5 million Hall Center for the Humanities building, which will be near Sunnyside Avenue and Sunflower Road, and the $2.7 million Structural Biology Center on west campus, west of Simons Biosciences Research Laboratories and McCollum Laboratories.

Design is under way on the $3 million Rieger Scholarship Hall in the 1300 block of Ohio Street, and renovations also are ongoing in Malott Hall laboratories on the main campus.

Modig said that although the biggest projects on KU’s plate soon would be finished, the next round might actually affect more people because there’s a greater variety of construction.

“It’s plenty to keep us busy,” he said. “They’re a lot more staggered and not as big in scale.”