This map, provided by KU in January 2016, shows some of the traffic re-routing planned for KU's Central District as redevelopment of the area kicks off. Image courtesy of Kansas University.

Kansas University is beginning to tear down the Stouffer Place apartment buildings this week, starting with two near Hilltop Child Development Center. Stouffer Place demolition kicks off redevelopment of KU’s entire Central District, which will create long-term detours and parking shortages in the area.

The Central District is the area between 19th and 15th streets and from Naismith Drive up to Daisy Hill. It’s home to the Burge Union, Allen Fieldhouse, Jayhawker Towers, Oliver Hall and the pile of rubble formerly known as McCollum Hall, among other buildings.

In the next three years the Central District will see construction of a new 500-bed residence and dining hall near Oliver Hall, a 700-bed student apartment building at 19th and Iowa streets, a new Burge Union, a parking garage, a utility plant and a 280,000-square-foot integrated science building.

All that’s going to take a lot of work. In an announcement Wednesday, KU outlined some of the things campus-goers can expect:

• Stouffer Place buildings 14 and 16, directly southwest of Hilltop, will be the first to go. Once they’re removed, a temporary access road will be constructed from Ellis Drive to Hilltop. KU officials are working with the city to identify traffic control measures at 19th Street and Ellis Drive to help Hilltop families and service vehicles get in and out more easily. Construction traffic will be routed separately from Hilltop traffic, to help ensure children and their families are safe.

This map, provided by KU in January 2016, shows some of the traffic re-routing planned for KU's Central District as redevelopment of the area kicks off. Image courtesy of Kansas University.

• Stouffer demolition will continue in stages, with buildings north of Hilltop coming down before those to the south. Demolition is expected to last into the summer.

• A number of trees will be removed. KU plans to retain some of the wood for fine art projects, and officials expect half of the trees can be harvested and milled into lumber.

• A large, temporary sediment basin will be constructed near 19th Street.

• Construction will cause parking shortages throughout the area. This spring, the western section of Bagley Drive will remain open to use for temporary parking, about 60 stalls. However, KU said, drivers are “strongly encouraged to take full advantage of the KU on Wheels system.”

photo by: Nick Krug

Hannah Au Yeong, 13, lugs a bag of blankets and pillows up a ramp into moving van at Stouffer Place apartments on Tuesday, June 30, 2015, the final day the family housing complex was open. The Au Yeong family, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, lived at Stouffer Place for four years.

The 25-building Stouffer Place complex — opened in 1957 as married-student housing — closed for good in July.
KU has no plans to build new family housing units. The university has said the buildings had come to the end of their useful life and KU would be unable to build new ones with comparably low rents, one of Stouffer Place’s main attractions.

• $327 million in bonds sold: In other Central District news, KU last week sold $327.1 million in bonds to pay for the Central District redevelopment project, at a total interest cost of 3.75 percent, according to KU officials. In November, the Kansas Board of Regents approved the project at a cost not to exceed $350 million.

• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.