The unadorned concrete slab served little purpose on the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville campus.
Built on a hillside adjacent to the Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences Building, the bare patio north of Maple Street "was kind of no man's land," said Mike Johnson, UA's associate vice chancellor for facilities. "Not many people used it."
That has changed, but at a cost.
A translucent roof covers the resurfaced area, with ceiling fans to produce breezes.
The patio also has been furnished with tables, chairs and bar seating to better take in an elevated view of campus that includes a glimpse into Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
With the final price tag of $633,765 to be shouldered by private donors to UA's Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, the site known as the Maudine Sanders Plaza and Hawkins Family Terrace has hosted a handful of events.
Those include tailgates before Razorback football games that have featured a 65-inch, high-definition television purchased by Bumpers College.
Mike Vayda, dean of the college, described the site's main purpose as providing a much-needed student study commons, crucial to preparing for a classroom expansion that is expected to increase the number of students to the Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences Building.
"This is something that is acutely needed, not only here but across Bumpers College and the university," Vayda said.
The approximately 2,100-square-foot site is already being used as a study area by some students, said Paige Acklie, a UA junior and vice president of the Agricultural Business Club.
"I wouldn't have expected it to cost that much to build, but I think that it's great that the college spent money on something that the students can definitely use, " Acklie said.
A ceremonial groundbreaking for the project took place in October 2013. Johnson said construction began in December, with the project "substantially complete" in June.
Much of the project's cost -- roughly half -- went toward steel and the material for the translucent panels, he explained.
"It's definitely not the same type of construction for a home, with all the steel and the translucent panels," Johnson said.
Little Rock-based CDI Contractors served as the project's general contractor, Johnson said. The project did not go up for bid. But subcontractors did bid competitively to work on portions of the project, Johnson said.
The cost fell below a $750,000 threshold that would have required the university to publish a request for bids.
The threshold was revised upward from $400,000 by the state Legislature last year.
ACE Glass, which has offices in Little Rock and Lowell, successfully bid to provide the translucent panels, the only bidder that followed through and met design requirements, Johnson said. Out of multiple bidders for steelwork, B and S Metal Sales submitted the winning bid, Johnson said. The main architect was Rogers-based Hight-Jackson Associates.
A major part of the funding for the project came through in April, when the Maudine F. Sanders Revocable Trust agreed to a request from UA to have leftover funds from an earlier gift be used for the Sanders Plaza and Hawkins Terrace project.
The Sanders trust agreed to have $472,000 requested by Bumpers College be used for the project, according to documents released by UA under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, including a letter from Bumpers College asking the Sanders trust for money.
"We envision students enjoying the terrace between classes, professors holding class in the commons on a beautiful spring day, and the landscaping to provide a living laboratory for several disciplines," the letter reads.
So far, detailed landscaping has yet to be added, with no final decision made on how such garden-type landscaping might proceed, Johnson said.
Vayda said that shortly after he began as dean in July 2010, he heard from faculty and alumni about a need for student commons.
Ideas for remaking the space came from horticulture and landscape architecture students taking a "capstone class," Vayda said. In May 2012, documents from the university show the college recorded a formal pledge for $100,000 from Bill and Suzanne Hawkins, UA alumni. The documents were released under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
"That initial gift started us on the path of engaging us with facilities management," Vayda said.
It's unclear what would have happened with the project if the large Sanders gift had not been received.
A document from June 2013 listed "Bumpers College Reserves" as the sole source of funding for the project. The document, a Request for Approval of Method of Financing, was reviewed by state legislators as required for projects costing more than $250,000. At the time, the project's cost was estimated by the university to be $598,230.
In a statement, Bumpers College spokesman Robby Edwards wrote that "there was never any intent to use funds from the reserves account without that money being transferred back in."
Vayda said the project was actually on hold "for well over a year" because of a lack of donor funding.
"There were some alumni society board members who made individual donations, not of the same magnitude of the Hawkins'," Vayda said.
He added that talks had been ongoing with the Sanders trust "at least six to nine months" before the April letter. The pledge wasn't secured until May, according to email documents released under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
"Without having private donations to complete the project, we'd probably still be waiting. That's a hypothetical. There may have been other options, also," Vayda said.
State Desk on 11/29/2014