Website to allow users to track IU construction

A new website makes available all the details of 130 construction projects across IU’s campuses.

The website, Building a Stronger IU, allows users to search projects by category, such as campus, budget, status and funding source.

Projects range from a list of various types of work, from bathroom renovations, window replacements and parking lots, to building new schools.

A live webcam video is watching two of the projects, and visitors are allowed to control the lens for 90-second sessions by changing its direction and zooming in and out.

Those buildings are the Kelley School of Business addition and the new School of Global and International Studies, which has two camera views to choose from.

The latter is the most expensive of the in-progress projects, with a budget of $530 million.

According to the website, construction.iu.edu, the building will contain 10 academic departments and 19 research centers. Its completion is scheduled for the third anniversary of its approval, on Aug. 1, 2015.

Active projects also on the Bloomington campus are the core renovation of Franklin Hall, the Herman B Wells Library and several others.

By the time students arrive on campus this August, major projects slated to be complete include renovations in Swain Hall, Forest and McNutt Quads and the Wells Library Film and Media Archives.

The Qualified Energy Savings Project, expected to total $15 million, is also scheduled to be finished in August.

According to the website, the project will reduce energy costs by upgrading and replacing energy-wasteful electrical and mechanical systems in four buildings at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis: the Medical Research and Library Building, the Business and School of Public and Environmental Affairs building, the Engineering and Technology Building and Gatch Hall.

Ashley Jenkins