Kansas State University’s rich tradition of land-grant education comes with buildings and facilities that have been around since 1863. As the university seeks to be Top 50 public research university by 2025, the campuses are undergoing renovations and additions to enhance the buildings’ capabilities.
These include:
The Equine Performance Testing Facility, a new addition to the Veterinary Medicine Complex, provides a soft-footing riding arena, an asphalt footing area and a 140-foot-long runway for lameness examinations; four holding stalls; a farrier services area; a radiographic imaging area; and a conference room for client services, student education and outreach activities. Construction of the $2.8 million facility, funded by Veterinary Health Center revenue, was completed in spring 2017.
The Chilled Water Plant Expansion, a $56 million project of the chilled water system, is in line with the K-State 2025 strategic plan to build an efficient, reliable and cost-effective central utility plant that provides the capacity for campus expansion. The new chiller plant building is large enough with four 2,500 ton chiller units to provide cooling for future expansion.
The College of Business Administration’s new home, a 140,000-square-foot building that opened in fall 2016, has more space and special features like financial trading rooms, a stock ticker and areas for professional development.
Kansas State University’s newest residence hall, Wefald Hall and Kramer Dining Center houses more than 540 students in 129,000 square feet of living space on its eight floors and is part of the Kramer Complex connected by enclosed walkways. The dining center has 60,000 square feet of kitchen, preparation space and dining rooms. It serves 1,850 students.
As part of Memorial Stadium’s two-part renovation, the east side houses the brand new Berney Family Welcome Center. The K-State Welcome Center serves the entire K-State family as the front door to new opportunities. This unique facility is one of the first in the country to provide a central location for students and families to connect with new student services, admissions, financial aid, housing and dining services, and career and employment services.
Engineering Hall, completed in January 2016 as part of the College of Engineering complex, has approximately 108,000 square feet of instructional, research and office space in support of interdisciplinary learning and collaboration in the college. It houses the computing and information sciences, and electrical and computer engineering.
Durland Hall, also part of the College of Engineering complex, got a $40 million wing added to the existing building. The new wing contains state-of-the-art classrooms and specialized laboratories.
As part of the university’s update to Bill Snyder Family Stadium, construction on the Vanier Football Complex was completed in August 2015. The $69 million complex grew from a two-story building to a four-story complex that doubles the amount of space for student-athletes and coaches. The expansion includes an academic learning center; strength, conditioning, training and recovery area; locker rooms; a team theater and meeting rooms; an office complex for coaches; and improved north-end seating and fan amenities.
ENTREMATIC EXPANDS IN SHAWNEE
Automated garage door manufacturer Entrematic Group AB leased a 70,000-square-foot building in Shawnee in order to expand its Kansas manufacturing operations.
Entrematic currently has a 400,000-square-foot facility in Lawrence that opened in 1989. The Swedish company grew that operation from 50 employees to about 800 today.
Entrematic is now expanding into Shawnee, leasing a building in the Westlink Business Center where it plans to produce several models of Amarr brand garage doors and assemble the hardware there.
“With steadily growing demand for garage doors, we recognized the need for additional production and assembly space and began to search for a site last fall,” John Romero, Entrematic’s vice president of production, said in a release. “The WestLink Business Center in Shawnee emerged as the best site for the expansion for a number of reasons, but especially because of its close proximity to our plant in Lawrence.”
Romero plans to hire 60 people. Entrematic has operations in 25 countries around the globe and employs about 2,800 people. It sells its products in 80 countries around the world.
