Pardon Our Progress- Part II

Cranes for Zimple house on the horizon!  (nola.com)

Last year, after New Orleans was named the fastest growing city in America, I did a blog post all about the explosion of construction activity around NOLA. So many cool things going up- I'm going to do a follow up post to that in a few months with some really cool "after" photos (but you can get a sneak peek- the Saengar Theater opened in grand fashion last month, and is currently showing Book of Mormon).

In the meantime, New Orleans is not the only thing that is growing at a rapid pace these days- our campus is currently bustling with construction activity. While construction on campus can be inconvenient, it is always a great sign of progress and growth for universities. We've got three major projects going on on campus right now, and when they are done, we'll have some pretty incredible additional services to offer our students, staff and community here at Tulane. So, whats all the construction all about? Let's check it all out!

Can. Not. Wait! 

Yulman Stadium- Probably one of the most exciting projects to hit campus in recent memory, we are around halfway done with our beautiful brand new on-campus football stadium. The goal is to play our first game there in October of 2014. And the buzz has been HUGE- in large part because, get this, Tulane is having an awesome season! Having been a Green Wave fan since I arrived on campus as a freshman, our team isn't usually a talked about team. But last week, USA Today named us the top surprise team in the nation. We're currently 5-2 and only one game away from bowl eligibility (and rumor is we may get the New Orleans bowl- how cool would that be?). Our QB, Nick Montana (son of Joe Montana, who is at each and every game) is having a pretty stellar season, and with players like running back Orleans Darkwa and the best kicker in the NCAA Cairos Santos leading the charge, this is a team to watch. I can only imagine what it's going to be like to be in our brand new on campus stadium. Yulman will seat 30,000 fans and will end up costing around $73 million thanks to large donations from the Glazer family (of the Tampa Bay Bucs), the Benson Family (of the New Orleans Saints) and the namesake family, the Yulmans (if any of you are reading this-- thanks!) Looks like the opener may be in Yulman next year against Georgia Tech- I am literally counting down the days till this game. In the meantime, I'll just stay tuned to the stadium cam to watch the progress.

Stadium Construction

Zimple House looks pretty nifty 

Zimple House- On the residential side of things, we are also around halfway through construction of a brand new residence hall on campus. The residence hall is currently named Zimple House, and will be our third residential living community on campus. Zimple house will be LEED Silver and will be both a four and a six story building that will be connected with skybridges over a landscaped courtyard. Tulane is planning all kinds of cool features for this facility- there will be a demonstration kitchen (so you can learn how to cook some serious New Orleans food), a 35-seat classroom, living rooms, social lounges and study rooms on the upper floors. The 80,000 square foot facility will be at the cutting edge of residence halls on college campuses- not to mention that it's walking distance (well, really shouting distance (well, really, touching distance)) from some of the most popular off campus nightspots for our students.

Zimple House goin' up!

Howard Tilton Memorial Library- Tulane's got an extensive collection of libraries on campus, containing over 3.2 million volumes and thousands upon thousands of periodicals, subscriptions and documents. The largest of our libraries by far is Howard Tilton, a.k.a HTML, a.k.a. Howie T. Howie T is currently undergoing massive growth- we are adding two floors to the top! The library has done a great job of blogging all about the progress and construction is just beginning. The new floors will house many of the books and resources that were formerly on the ground floor and basement of the library, which flooded in Hurricane Katrina. The top floors will house everything from special collections to microfiches. Essentially, as Tulane and its resources have grown since Katrina, the need for more space in the library has grown too. And if you are worried about the noise during construction, Howie T has a solution for you!

Getting Howard Tilton prepped for his growth

So there you have it, a quick report all about our bustling little campus. Stay tuned as these projects come to completion- they will surely be great additions to our campus. You can always read all about construction updates and capital projects at Tulane here. And here are lots and lots of photos for you!

All kinds of action at the site of the new stadium (Sarah Swig)

Here is where Yulman will be, right behind our rec center. (nola.com)

Construction at Zimple House

Zimple House courtyard 

Zimple when finished 

New top floors of library when done

Inside of library upon completion