Mennonite Weekly Review

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Eastern Mennonite University’s campus is undergoing several building projects starting this summer and continuing through the year.

EMU physical plant director Eldon Kurtz looks at plans for the renovation of the old gymnasium space into a mainstage theater. — Photo by Jim Bishop/EMU

Phase II of the University Commons, a $2.4 million funded project, will benefit fine arts programs at EMU. Meanwhile $6 million residence hall renovations will update 40-year-old buildings.

The former student center-gymnasium attached to the south end of the Commons is being turned into a 200-seat mainstage theater. The new facility will offer tiered seating, new dressing rooms and costume shop and more storage space.

This fall’s mainstage theater production, the musical comedy The Triumph of Love, will be presented mid-October in Lehman Auditorium while the Phase II work continues, with completion slated for November this year.

Adjacent to the new mainstage theater will be the Lee Eshleman Studio Theater for smaller, more intimate performances. The facility is being named in honor of Lee Eshleman, a 1986 art graduate who was part of the actor-playwright duo Ted & Lee until his death in 2007.

The student-run Common Grounds coffeehouse will remain at its present site in the Commons but is being enlarged with a built-in stage area and special lighting. It will also be air-conditioned and handicapped-accessible.

The Phase II Commons project will also feature an advanced media lab for the Visual and Communication Arts program. The room will have 15 work stations with state-of-the-art equipment for video-audio editing and advanced digital imaging.

Across Park Road from the Commons, Elmwood residence hall is being completely renovated, with its companion, Maplewood, to follow once Elmwood is completed by Christmas this year. Both buildings opened in 1963 and “are sorely in need of major improvements,” according to C. Eldon Kurtz, director of physical plant at EMU.

Improvements to both buildings will feature environmentally-friend heating and cooling systems, modernized safety features, improved natural and artificial lighting, expanded lounge areas serving each floor, new exit stairs and elevators in each building. The three-story buildings will each accommodate 85 students.

Once Elmwood is completed, attention will focus during spring semester 2011 on a similar renovation of Maplewood residence hall, with anticipated completion the summer of 2011.