Olympic Architect to Join USF Poly Project
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
LAKELAND| When University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft visited the Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece, she admired its sweeping lines and parklike surroundings .
“It was a breathtaking experience,” she recalled, saying she wanted that type of design at a USF facility.
Her wish was granted. Genshaft formally announced Tuesday morning that Santiago Calatrava, who revamped the sports complex for the 2004 Summer Olympics, is the architect for USF Polytechnic’s future campus at the corner of Interstate 4 and the Polk Parkway near Auburndale.
The announcement came after months of detailed negotiations.
The world-famous Spanish architect, who now lives in New York City, will design the new campus’ first building, a 100,000-square-foot science and technology building, and update the campus master plan approved several years ago.
‘BEAUTIFUL SITE’
In a live telephone call from Zurich, broadcast on speaker phone at USF Poly, Calatrava said he is excited by the scope of the project and the opportunity to be involved in creating a new campus and helping to stiumulate economic growth.
“It is an enormous, beautiful and natural site,” he said. “We are very much concerned about preserving the beauty.”
He said he will return to the United States in mid July and hopes to be in Lakeland soon after that. The campus and first building are scheduled to open in late summer 2012.
Calatrava, 57, is principal designer for the project that local development officials predict will be a catalyst in attracting new businesses and more high-skill, high-wage jobs to the region.
Steve Scruggs, executive director of the Lakeland Economic Development Council, calls the upcomign USF Poly campus “unquestionably the most important economic development project I have worked on in more than 20 years.”
The only polytechnic in Florida, it focuses on hands-on learning and research in teh applied arts and sciences, business and education.
The new location will be its primary campus, but it will continue using space it now shares with Polk Community College in South Lakeland. Also on the architectural team for the I-4 campus are Alfonso Archnitects of Tampa, listed as architect of record; Festina/Lente Inc. Flroida, the contractng entity and design architect; and various subconsultants.
$6 MILLION FEES
Architectural engineering fees for the project will be just less than $6 million, 12.8 percent fo the $46.5 million construction cost, USF Poly said.
Albert Alfonso, president of Alfonso Architects, said it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with an architect of Calatrava’s stature on a polytechnic university for a previously undeveloped site.
“We are design architects,” said Alfonso, whose company has done several USF projects.
“We don’t usually team up (with another lead architect). It’s usually the othe way. But Santiago Calatrava flies in a different orbit.”
He and USF officials said they look forward to the vision Calatrava will bring.
“He’s a renaissance architect,” Alfonso said. “There are nto many working at his level today.”
Marshall Goodman, campus executive officer for USF Poly, raised the bar even higher.
“We’re going to put an architectural landmark there, an iconic structure,” Goodman said. “We intend to build a masterpiece by the greatest architect of this century.”
How will that benefit economic development?
Scruggs sees the polytechnic as an incubator for entrepreneurial businesses. USF Poly professors and students can work with businesses in developing innovative technology. Polk officials hope that will bring more technology-oriented businesses, growth and jobs.
EXCITEMENT BUILDS
Calatrava’s involvement will “add to the excitement of having a polytechnic here,” said Lakeland City Commissioner Gow Fields.
Auburndale City Manager Bobby Green expects the new campus will bring more residents and businesses into Auburndale, which has been planning with USF Poly and Lakeland on the project for years.
“It’s not just good for Lakeland and not just good for Auburndale,” Green said. “It’s good for all of Polk County.”
Stuart Rogel, president of Tampa Bay Partnership, goes even further: He says USF Poly will benefit the entire state by attracting businesses and preventing talented people from leaving.
The partnership made funding for USF Poly its second-highest priority in the 2008 legislative session.
Calatrava’s building and campus design will be a key factor, said David Robinson, president of DSM Technology Consultants in Lakeland, who was on USF Poly’s architect selection committee.
“As Florida’s first polytechnic, we’re going to have the opportunity to see the transformation a single building can create,” Robnison said.
The Polk County Commission agreed in April to let the Central Florida Development Council donate $1 million to USF Poly as seed money for the incubator. CFDC Director Tom Patton has said it’s crucial to have one to encourage new businesses.
IT FIRMS TO BE SOUGHT
Initially, USF Poly would seek information technology companies interested in software, networking and developing specific IT projects, Goodman said. Larger expenses – like dust-free “clean” rooms for medical manufacturing and wet labs for chemical research – would come later.
Students attend polytechnic universities to get both an education and more understanding of the relationship between science and industry, Calatrava said, adding, “This is part of the modern understanding of the university today.”
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