Sweet music echoes from construction site

For students just returning to Texas A&M University-Commerce, walking to the cashier's office to pay their tuition or buy parking permits may have been quite a shock. Just across the street, where last semester there were trees and parking lots, there is now the rising framework of the new music building, complete with all the sights and sounds of a busy construction site.

The construction of the new music building, which broke ground on Feb. 8, is scheduled to be completed next summer.

"We were planning to turn the facility over to the faculty in July, and that is still the plan," Bob Brown, Vice President for Business and Administration at A&M Commerce said.

According to Brown, the major emphasis of construction is on the masonry work, which is especially important in a building dedicated to music, in order to shape the acoustics of the structure.

Students interested in the progress of the construction may follow a live web cam of the site from a link off the school's home page, www.tamu-commerce.edu.

Plans are also in the works for the areas around the music building. The site of the former Memorial Student Center is to be converted into what is called "green space."

"It will be a grass field with some seating, such as park benches," David McKenna, Executive Director of Facilities said.

In addition, 200 new parking spaces will be created close to the football field to accommodate the new building and the parking the construction site is replacing.

"If you were sitting in the bleachers at the football field, you would be facing where the new parking is going to go," Brown said.

Though this project is not yet completed, the administration is already beginning to look ahead to further expansion projects. Preliminary discussions for the next project are underway, and are centered on building a new residence hall. McKenna said a site has not been chosen for the new hall, and it will be about another month before formal planning begins.

For now the new music building site is already a hectic symbol of the University's progress. In a little less than a year, the beat of hammers and the mechanical music of cranes and saws will give way to the beating of percussion ensembles and the soothing sounds of the choir.