The Texas A&M University Division of Student Affairs is leading a project to construct a new $42.6 million, 95,000-square-foot Student Services Building on Military Walk where Bizzell Hall now stands. When the more spacious and accommodating building is complete in the heart of campus, all displaced student services offices will be centrally located under one roof to provide more convenient and collaborative programs and services for students.
“After Cain Hall was removed, student leaders were adamant that the new Student Services Building should be located in a central campus location, and we are excited that we honored these requests by constructing adjacent to Military Walk. I am encouraged by the recent progress that has been made on the new Student Services Building, and pleased with its innovative design, which will allow our departments to more efficiently and effectively serve Texas A&M students,” said Daniel J. Pugh Sr., vice president for student affairs at Texas A&M. “It was critically important to student leaders and Student Affairs that we maintain centralized services—Student Counseling, Disability Services, the Offices of the Dean of Student Life and Residence Life—under one roof in the heart of campus, and we are delivering.”
Lake Flato Architects of San Antonio and PBK, an architectural and engineering firm with offices internationally, will finalize designs early next year. Once their plans are approved by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, Vaughn Construction will begin work that will wrap up at the end of 2019, at which time the staff will move into the new facility. Among many other Texas A&M projects, Vaughn Construction has worked on the Memorial Student Center renovation and is continuing to work on the Zachry Engineering Education Complex. Students will begin enjoying the Student Services Building in early 2020. Architects are designing ways to honor the history of Bizzell Hall, which will be demolished this month.
Following a standard campus building construction timeline, as with the Music Activity Center and the Engineering Complex currently underway on campus, the university is allowing up to one year for design and up to two years for construction of the Student Services Building.
“We intend to enhance and activate the communal core of campus by designing for ample daylight and shared spaces, and by providing clear pedestrian circulation and connectivity,” the architects said. “We want this to be a welcoming destination that encourages interaction with students. It will be warm, highly visible and easily accessible.”
The Offices of the Dean of Student Life, which manage nearly a dozen different programs ranging from Health Promotion and the Women’s Resource Center to Off-Campus Student Services and New Student and Family Programs, will inhabit the new space along with Student Counseling, Disability Services and Residence Life. These departments are temporarily located at the White Creek location on West Campus.
Visit sswc.tamu.edu to learn more about student services offered at the White Creek location.
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Media contact: Sondra White, director of marketing, Division of Student Affairs, at 979-458-3296 or sondra@tamu.edu; or Elena Watts, Division of Marketing & Communications, at 979-458-8412 or elenaw@tamu.edu.
