PASADENA - Six years after voters approved a $150 million improvement for Pasadena City College, three major components are moving along according to plan.
The campus center renovation, which includes a new bookstore, a new industrial technology building and a performing arts center, is progressing toward its targeted 2011 completion date.
Motorists passing by the northwest area of the campus, near the intersection of Hill Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, will see a fenced-off area that by next May will be the home of the industrial technologies building near the the renovated campus center.
Numerous other upgrades - such as new buildings, renovated classrooms and rewired Internet and phone services - should be completed by 2011.
Construction is scheduled to begin next year on a new 91,000-square-foot performing arts center, also due to be completed by 2011. Designs of the arts center building are being finalized and construction will start in mid-2009.
"These projects are needed because of the age of the buildings they are in," said Jack Shulman, director of Measure P projects for PCC. "(Currently), some of the programs and classes are not in one location and are thrown about in different buildings."
The proposed 66,568- square-foot industrial
technologies building will house 15 new laboratories and classrooms and will include PCC's automotive, construction, electronics and welding programs.
The renovated 47,000- square-foot campus center will have a staff dining room, a modernized kitchen and a larger eating area for students. Wireless Internet access will be available. Student organizations will occupy offices and workrooms in the building.
Measure P was the first bond approved in 50 years for Pasadena City College. Shulman called the projects funded by the $150 million bond "extremely critical" for the college.
The PCC district includes Altadena, Arcadia, La Ca ada Flintridge, Pasadena, San Marino, Sierra Madre, South Pasadena and Temple City as well as portions of El Monte and Rosemead.
The district-wide Measure P was approved by 69.7 percent of voters in 2002. The bond money was to reduce classroom crowding by converting some facilities to classrooms and remodeling existing classrooms, improve parking, replace outdated facilities and to fund upgrades.
The bond projects are part of the PCC's Master Plan, which analyzed the school's facilities needs through 2010 and recommended constructing new buildings, more parking structures and improving campus landscaping by planting more trees and shrubs.
With so many aging buildings on campus with classrooms that could not handle the latest technology, classrooms and buildings had to be renovated and remodeled, Shulman said.
Finished projects include a $23 million, five-story parking lot completed in 2005. It brought the number of available parking spaces on campus up to 6,000 which alleviated many problems the college had with the surrounding area.
John Martin, president of the PCC Board of Trustees, said all of the improvements made to the campus in addition to the Measure P projects make a "a positive impact on the campus' aesthetics."
"As a board, we are so excited about all of the capacity this is going to offer the college," he said.
caroline.an@sgvn.com
(626) 578-6300, Ext. 4494
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