Organizers discuss phase two of Brady expansion

By Campbell Massie

Published Jan. 25, 2008

At an informational meeting for university departments and student organizations on Jan. 17, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Jeff Zeilenga discussed the possibility of hiring of an interior designer and finding a source for additional funding for the new student center, should it become necessary.

Officials in charge of the project haven't determined if the money would be needed, Student and Auxiliary Services spokeswoman Michelle Froese said.

"It would be nice if we could identify another $5 million just in case," she said. "Ideally, what the goal is, is to preserve as much square footage as possible."

Froese said the additional $5 million would ideally come from a private donor or the Student and Auxiliary Services budget. She said the money would not come from student fees.

"We don't know how much we are going to need without redesigning project two," Froese said.

Meetings to plan and redesign the second phase of the project will start next week, Froese said.

Planners hope the project will come within budget, but they want to identify possible funding options, Zeilenga said Thursday.

At the informational meeting, he said the university would work with Gray Design Group Inc., based in St. Louis. He said he hoped the contract would be finalized the next day, but Froese said Wednesday that the university hadn't yet hired a designer.

"We would like to have a contract for a designer, but it is not official or anything," she said. "There has been no paperwork."

The designer would need to help Student Life and the Center for Student Involvement committee plan for spatial needs and arrangement of the different organizations that would use the new student center, Froese said.

"We need an interior designer to help us create a kind of atmosphere that MU students said that they wanted," Froese said. "Something very traditional, something that is sort of more Mizzou-oriented."

She said planners hoped to work with Gray Design Group based on a recommendation by Design & Construction Services, a department of MU Campus Facilities in charge of architecture, engineering, interior design and construction.

Zeilenga said the student center was designed in two phases after an original proposal came in $8 million over budget. The two-phase project would meet the project's planned budget, he said.

According to an e-mail update from Missouri Student Unions and Student and Auxiliary Services sent Wednesday, the first phase of the project is on schedule.