10th Street could become one-way

Student drivers who habitually use 10th Street to drive to classes might need to rethink their routes in the future. University officials said Tuesday they plan to turn 10th Street into a one-way road with traffic moving east. \nThis redirection would alleviate traffic congestion through campus, said University Architect Bob Meadows.\nA sister project to the 10th Street change could be the construction of a new road moving west through campus, eventually uniting with 14th Street. Included in Meadows' road plan is the desire to bring the newly dubbed science precinct into the center of campus. This plan would allow Woodlawn Avenue and Seventh Street to become the main roads through center campus, Meadows said.\nIU's first multidisciplinary science building -- Simon Hall -- is nearly complete, which will trigger building of the second such building. Set to begin in January 2007, it will be located just north of 10th Street behind the Psychology Building. The structure will replace the current service building.\n"We plan to remove that bit of street and bring more landscaping like in center-campus to the north precinct," Meadows said. \nStarting this summer is the construction of a new parking garage to be located on the corner of Atwater and Indiana avenues. This new facility is planned to be finished by the time the new building opens, and will help lift the parking pressure the new Simon building will bring to that side of campus, said Meadows. \nWork will also be done on Ashton Hall this summer, as the University plans to demolish it. In its place will be a new student housing unit, but the project to build has currently been placed on hold, said Meadows.\nTo be completed in August of 2007 are two projects that may get a little greek. A new classroom and office building will be built between Pi Beta Phi and Alpha Phi across from Myers Hall on 3rd Street, and the former Beta Theta Pi house located on 10th Street will be renovated and used as a School of Informatics office space.\n"Initially we thought we would tear it down," Meadows said about the Beta Theta Pi house. "But we needed office space for the informatics school." The University purchased the house after the chapter was expelled from campus in 2001. \nFaculty members heard details on many campus expansion projects that could mean big changes for the campus over the next several years during the last Bloomington Faculty Council meeting of the year Tuesday. The meeting finished off what BFC President Ted Miller said was "an interesting year to be affiliated with the BFC."\nMiller's "interesting" year included the reconstruction of the IU-Bloomington administration. If Meadows' master plan for the campus is set into motion, the next several years at IU-Bloomington could be full of construction as well. Plans include major road changes, new offices, academic buildings, and residences halls. \nIncluded in long-range plans are the construction of a new Hutton Honors College, the two or three-building expansion of the Jacobs' School of Music and a Law School addition. \nAlthough the plan looks to better the University in size and physical beauty, some faculty noticed missing links in the future plans.\n"The project I hear most asking about is the humanities building," Miller said. "I always hear it suggested as a high priority ... but if a humanities building really is a priority project then we clearly need to get into gear."\nMembers also addressed the long running issue of the 7th Street construction site, which has been next to the IU Auditorium since the fall of 1997. \nIn September of 2005, Meadows told the IDS that the fenced in area was still being used as a storage unit for the construction of the multidisciplinary science building one, now named the Simon Building. With the completion of that building estimated for the 4th quarter of 2006, some wonder if the site will finally be removed.