New School of Planning, Design & Construction

Jared

Has anybody else heard about the plans for the new School of Planning, Design & Construction (SPDC)? The SPDC was started in July 2004 and is a joint venture between about three of MSU's colleges, encompassing different programs.

Here is a rendering of what it is supposed to look like:



The project is supposed to be located at the old Shaw Lane power plant. The power plant is not in use, to my best knowledge, and will build up the central part of campus. The current school is located just down the road at the intersection of Wilson and the road that wraps around the Stadium (for lack of knowing the name of it). I believe they would either use both buildings, or the older building will be converted for another college's use.

hood

Looks great, I really hope to see MSU go on a building boom over the next couple years. The way it's looking they will be.

Jared

Yeah, they are currently planning on finishing up their largest fundraising campaign in I believe 2009. Much of the fundraising items though have deadlines before 2009, such as the SPDC which has a deadline of 2007. Their goal for the fundraising is 1.2 billion dollars. They currently have raised 1.165 billion.

hood

I had no idea that they were that close to reaching their goal, with that knowledge I would expect to see construction on these projects start very soon.

MichMatters

What colleges will be included, here? The current UP Building is totally out of character with the program, and I've heard many make jokes about it.

Jared

*Construction Management
*Interior Design
*Landscape Architecture
*Urban and Regional Planning
*Community and Economic Development Program

Jared

As an update to this project, I believe that it was killed a while ago, as my Urban Planning prof hinted at in class. It's too bad to hear this, as the planned proposal looked great.

The School of Planning, Design & Construction should be moving to the Human Ecology building, located near the MSU Union, putting it in a deservedly more urban setting.

hood

I found a flythrough of this project on its architect's website. Hope it's not really dead.

Flythrough

Jared

It really does look nice. I sure hope the project isn't dead, maybe just pushed back 5 years or so.

hood

Could this be part of what MSU will do with that $1.5 billion in contributions or whatever it was?

TEXigander

Right after I graduated from the UP program in 2006 I was told they had cancelled this project and the School was supposed to be moving into the Human Ecology building. There was some concern on the part of planning students because it was rumored that we would loose the Planning Library.