TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2001
Plans take shape for tech center, chapel at TU
By Cathy Willoughby
Staff Writer
Plans are beginning to take a more solid shape for two new buildings on the Tiffin University campus.
President George Kidd said last week that plans have been completed, and Tiffin City Council has been approached to vacate an alley running east to west between Clay and Miami streets.
"That will complete the area and will be landscaped,'' he said.
Groundbreaking is anticipated for late spring 2002 for the Hertzer Technology Center and a building that will contain a meditation chapel, a 75-seat lecture hall and expanded art gallery.
"The art gallery will be 2,000 square feet, four-plus times larger than the one we have now,'' Kidd explained. "Along with the 75-seat auditorium, we will have a prayer chapel, which will be a place for people to just be. To meditate and sit by themselves.''
The chapel area will be about 600 square feet, and will be designed for private use by several people. It is not designed to serve as a place to conduct services, Kidd said.
The Hertzer Technology Center is named for TU friends Bill and Jean Hertzer and their son, all from Tiffin.
"It will contain four high-tech classrooms and house all the university's computer equipment,'' Kidd said. "And will have the offices of all of the technology people. It will be a place where faculty and students can interact and plan at the cutting edge of technology.''
Richard Fleischman Architects from Cleveland completed the design, which will be blend in nicely with other buildings on campus, even though the design will differ, Kidd said.
Bid packages for both buildings will be approved soon, he said, with groundbreaking in the late spring. Kidd estimated that it will take about six months for the buildings to be constructed.