Wichita State unveils master plan that calls for demo, construction of several buildings
Wichita State University officials on Friday unveiled a 10-year plan that calls for demolition of several buildings and new construction of others.
There is no estimated cost yet for the changes, but WSU president Rick Muma said he thought they would need to raise close to $500 million from donors.
“The master plan is a living document. It will change over time. It’s aspirational and it can and will be adjusted throughout the next decade,” Muma told several dozen people in an auditorium at Woolsey Hall, which was completed in 2022 as part of WSU’s last fundraising effort that brought in over $307 million.
The plan is still being completed, but will be available to see online when it is done, likely at the end of March. People will be able to give input as well.
What was presented Friday will need some tinkering, as one person in attendance pointed out a pedestrian path is currently going through Woolsey Hall.
“I think we will probably have to go around,” said Steve Wilson with Gensler architecture firm out of Chicago. “I think that was a good catch.”
Gensler helped design Woolsey Hall. The company has been helping WSU with its 2024-2034 master plan for the last year. A WSU spokesperson did not immediately know how much Gensler is being paid.
The plan was designed with feedback from more than 900 students, staff and alumni. Gensler officials said their proposed plan also tries to better connect all parts of campus.
The plan calls for demolition of Hubbard Hall, Heskett Center, Grace Wilkie Hall, Neff Hall and Brennan Hall 1-3, among other buildings. Muma said Brennan Hall, former dorms now used as office space, would be torn down next year.
The police department and its adjacent building and the parking lot just to the west would also be torn out. The idea is to use that area, and new buildings along it, to create a space that better connects the Innovation Campus with the rest of the campus.
“Have an open mind also about what you’ll see,” Muma said. “You’ll also see some pretty radical ideas that we are going to show you today to really move us into the future as an institution.”
Muma said some of the most used buildings on campus are in the worst condition. The university, he said, currently has $150 million in deferred maintenance.
“To make this work long term in terms of our finances, we are going to have to make some hard choices and get rid of some of these facilities and build state-of-the-art, multi-disciplinary spaces where all the colleges can have the benefit of nice classrooms like this, and laboratories and those sorts of things,” he said. “It might not mean that your office will be in that building but you will have this really great teaching space.”
Muma told attendees that “we won’t tear a building down without identifying a replacement.”
The plan also called for adding sports fields and constructing a building to house WSU’s Child Development Center at the city’s Fairmount Park.
Fairmount Park has “tremendous potential to be a partnership between university and community,” Wilson said, adding that the development center is outdated and needs more room.
The Kansas Board of Regents, the governing body over the Kansas’ six state universities, requires its schools to do a master plan every 10 years. Friday’s presentation can be found at rb.gy/feppo6.