Kent State Rebuilding 'Failing' 50-year-old Parking Lot

Work is under way to reconstruct the 400-space tiered parking lot that has served the Music & Speech Center at since the building’s construction in 1960.

Michael Bruder, director of design and construction in the Office of the University Architect, said the $1.2 million project is a necessity since everything about the lot is in a state of failure.

"The asphalt is failing, the underground drainage (system) is failing, the lights are failing and there are pedestrian movement problems," Bruder explained.

An additional $400,000 has been set aside in a contingency fund for the project, since workers won't know what they're up against until the asphalt is torn up.

"The surface has been redone multiple times since 1960. This is the first major replacement of the utility infrastructure," Bruder said.

He said the project – which is set for completion Aug. 19 – was contemplated last summer. "But for various reasons we had to delay it … it’s pretty disruptive to that part of the campus," Bruder said.

Construction fencing is now installed around the lot, which serves as commuter parking from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and free public parking for evening and weekend performances at the Music & Speech Center.

Last November, part of the building was rechristened the Roe Green Center for the School of Theatre and Dance after completion of a $13 million renovation that was two years in the making.

The project brought Kent State’s theatre and dance departments together under the same roof for the first time with three new dance studios and related support spaces, a 200-seat black box experimental theater and a new glass lobby entrance.

The parking lot, located across Theatre Drive from the building, will lose only a couple of its 400 parking spaces. The 15 two-hour metered spots nearest the building will remain.

One of the biggest improvements that users will appreciate, Bruder said, is improved "pedestrian circulation" throughout the lot and beyond. Sidewalks are being installed where none existed before: along the south side of Theatre Drive and the west side of Chiarucci Drive. The latter runs behind the parking lot and serves as the drop-off loop for Centennial Court.

Bruder said construction workers will be "working hard to maintain the existing mature trees" that grace the lot. The existence of those trees prompted a lighting plan deviation from normal parking lot projects.

"Typical parking lot lights are pretty tall, like 30 feet. Since we have a lot of mature trees in that lot, tall lighting wouldn’t be effective. So we’re using shorter fixtures so light gets distributed below the tree canopy," Bruder said.

Two styles of light fixtures will be used: ones that resemble acorns and the shepherd’s hook fixtures featuring the Kent State medallion that were introduced last year at Risman Plaza.

Larry Emling, director of parking services at Kent State, said the three-month lot closure likely will not be an inconvenience to many motorists.

"It doesn’t get used a lot in the summer, but we never know how high demand is (for commuter parking) until we get started in Summer 1 (session)," he said. "Motorists will have to park at Tri Towers or the spaces in front of Dunbar, Prentiss and Verder Halls."

Emling said signs redirecting motorists to those parking areas will be erected before Summer 1 classes begin June 6.