The busiest building on the University of Texas Permian Basin campus is undergoing some major renovations.
The Mesa Building will be a mix of a one-stop shop for students, classrooms and offices. The services were there before, but they will be configured differently.
Project Manager Scott Hoffman said the entire project is currently expected to take until 2026. Adolfson & Peterson Construction is doing the renovations.
The transformation will take place in several phases with the first floor going first. The first floor will be entirely focused on student services, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Becky Spurlock said.
The offices will be grouped near each other to make it easier for students and to enable offices to work more collaboratively.
For example, Advising and Career Services will share an office space on the first floor right near the quad.
“On the other side of the building, there’s going to be an enrollment hub on the first floor with the centerpiece being a new one-stop shop desk so students can take care of multiple issues or questions in one place,” Spurlock said.
“If they need something more specialized, then all of the … main offices for enrollment are in a hub around that desk. Admissions, registrar, student accounts, financial aid, advising is just across the way. Everything is right there,” she added.
Spurlock said she always tells students at orientation that there is no wrong door to help you at UTPB.
“Just tell somebody when you have a problem, and we’ll get you to the right person. That’s going to continue to be true. But this renovation brings to life in a physical space that idea. You come to one place. This one-stop shop, and we’re going to help you, or we’re going to bring the people to you to help you with the thing you need,” she added.
The floors to be renovated in order are first, third, second and fourth.
Hoffman said each phase is projected to take four to six months with the first phase wrapping up around mid-December.
“As you can imagine, you know, we’re renovating a building while we’re going to continue to use it. … (We’re) moving offices a little at a time and making the spaces work.
“But I love that students will be able to in the course of a year, see really dramatic change. They’re not having to wait a long time. … They’re going to experience the benefits, the updates to the technology in classrooms, the collaboration of spaces. When you first walk in the Mesa Building, there’s going to be two conference rooms right there that can be used for our partners to come do career interviews, or study spaces or groups to meet,” Spurlock said.
The food pantry and Career Closet will be right across from each other.
“So again, students can take care of any number of things that they may need with ease,” Spurlock added.
There will be a lot of new technology as well, to help students who need help.
“During busy times, they’ll be able to check in electronically and then go get a cup of coffee and get a text when it’s their turn, so they don’t have to wait in a line for a long time. As the quad gets renovated, they’ll be able to wait in our beautiful quad and then know it’s their turn. Classrooms are getting upgraded technology. On the second floor, one of our really popular rooms, the multipurpose room, will get some upgraded technology, making it more useful for a wide variety of users. All the spaces are going to be improved in ways that are going to make students’ lives better,” Spurlock said.
Hoffman said they started with the first floor because that’s the one with all the student services on it.
“We wanted to get the first floor done … at the beginning so we could get the one-stop shop set up and be able to service the students immediately right out of the gate. We’re jumping to the third floor because of some classes that were on the second floor that were a scheduling conflict.
“We’re jumping up to three since … (there are) a lot of professors … on the third floor. We figure if we can get them done in the second phase, then by the time we go back down to the second floor, they’ll be able to come back in and then the second floor is mostly classrooms that we can schedule on the third floor in the newly renovated classrooms,” Hoffman added.
Administrative offices are on the fourth floor.
The building will also be gaining some way-finding signage.
“It’ll be clearer on which way to go for the classrooms, for the offices, where the elevators are,” Hoffman said.
Spurlock said things will be similar spaces, will grouped more closely together.
“Right now, advising is on the second floor, kind of tucked back in one of the hallways and it’s a busy area. Well, now it will be on the first floor. It will be much easier and direct to find, and it’s across from the College of Business. That space will get repurposed for more academic space,” Spurlock said.
The estimated project cost is $46 million, Hoffman said.
A significant portion of the renovations is in health and safety, code, and Americans with Disabilities upgrades, he added.
The Mesa renovations are just a piece of the campus transformation.
The Bright Star Memorial and a quad revamp are part of that.
Plans are to wrap up the technical phases later this semester.
“All of this will start to move simultaneously, so there’ll be a lot of different activities,” Spurlock said.
Director of Strategic Communications Alexa Dunson said it’s exciting to think that the freshman class could leave with a completely different campus by the time they leave in four to six years.
“There’s lots happening at once,” Spurlock said.
“It’s all snowballing towards a whole new look and feel that I think will be really exciting for our students and … our community (that) uses the campus and even the new fitness court that we’re unveiling … There are just more and more amenities and opportunities for these facilities to positively impact our student and our community,” she added.
