Construction of a new five-story residence hall at Wichita State University will start soon after Memorial Day.

The new residence hall will help energize campus and provide exceptional access to academic and recreational opportunities for students who will live near the heart of the campus.

The new residence hall will house about 770 students and be located between Cessna Stadium and Morrison Hall. A new 400-seat dining hall will be attached to the residence hall.

The project will cost about $60 million and be paid for by revenue bonds. Housing revenues will be used over a period of time to repay the bonds.

Ready for fall 2014

Plans are for the residence hall to be completed and ready for students to occupy by the start of the 2014 fall semester.

Mostly first-year students and some returning students will reside in the new residence hall. Several room configurations will be available — singles, standard doubles, double rooms with two singles, and quad rooms with four single rooms. Some will have small living room areas.

Each floor will have a laundry room, community kitchen and lounge area.

After completion of the new residence hall, Wheatshocker Apartments and Brennan Halls will no longer be residence halls. Plans are to raze those buildings for future development. Fairmount Towers will be available for returning students only.

The private/public partner developer selected by the university was EdR of Memphis, Tenn. The lead design architect is Page Southerland Page (PSP) LLP from Denver, Colo. PSP is working with local architects Howard and Helmer and MKEC Engineers.

Dondlinger and Sons Construction and Farha Construction are the construction team under EdR.

To help alleviate the loss of about 750 parking spaces, work also will begin this month on paving the existing Heskett Center intramural field along 21st Street. The new parking lot will accommodate around 400 vehicles.

Work on the new parking lot will begin soon after commencement on May 17 and 18, and will be open in time for the start of fall semester classes on Aug. 19.

Cornejo and Sons LLC will construct the new lot. The parking lot project will cost about $500,000 and be paid by Wichita State’s parking system funds.

Plans are to construct a new replacement playfield and renovate the existing field at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex this summer and fall, with the project to be completed during fall 2013.