Early this month, the Ferris Board of Trustees approved a new heat­ing and air con­di­tion­ing project for the Arts and Sciences Complex.

The project entails the instal­la­tion of a new heat­ing, ven­ti­la­tion and air con­di­tion­ing sys­tem in the Arts and Sciences Complex. This includes the Science and Starr Buildings, The Arts and Sciences Commons and G. Mennen Williams Auditorium.

Michael Hughes, asso­ciate vice pres­i­dent of the FSU Physical Plant, said the ren­o­va­tions are under way.

“The main focus at this time is the instal­la­tion of under­ground util­i­ties and the con­struc­tion of the new build­ing which will house the mechan­i­cal sys­tems,” said Hughes.

However, the project will mean that sev­eral of these build­ings will be closed down for parts of the summer.

The Starr Building will be closed for the sum­mer and the Science Building will close after June 30. The Arts and Sciences Commons will remain open.

All sum­mer courses that are offered in the College of Arts and Sciences build­ings have been relo­cated across campus.

The entire Arts and Sciences Complex is expected to be ready on Aug. 23 for the fall semester.

Hughes said, “We received bids and were pleas­antly sur­prised that they came in under budget.”

The project bud­get has been revised to about $5.9 mil­lion. This num­ber is down from an orig­i­nally esti­mated cost of $7 million.

Clark Construction of Lansing will serve as con­struc­tion man­ager and Progressive AE of Grand Rapids will be the archi­tec­tural engi­neer for the project. n