In a move to help accommodate the growth of the College of Health and Human Services, Fresno State broke ground on the Physical Therapy and Intercollegiate Athletics Building Wednesday, May 14.
Located near Barstow Avenue and Campus Drive in between the Aquatics Center and the North Gym Annex, this two-story facility will be home to the Physical Therapy Department and offices for several athletics coaches.
The first floor of the 22,000-square-foot facility will consolidate physical therapy offices and laboratory spaces under one roof. The department’s offices and labs have been scattered across three buildings since its doctoral degree program was approved in 2011.
“Consolidating the Physical Therapy Department’s administrative and faculty offices will provide more convenient access to the research and teaching laboratories, and more importantly, it will provide improved communication and collaboration between faculty and the students they serve,” said Dr. Jody Hironaka-Juteau, interim dean of the College of Health and Human Services.
Hironaka-Juteau said moving physical therapy to the new facility will also free up office space in McLane Hall for the college’s Department of Nursing.
The second floor will be dedicated to sports administration, housing coaches offices for men’s and women’s basketball, softball and volleyball, as well as a large team meeting room and a dedicated self-instruction computer lab for student-athletes.
“This new facility, along with the construction of the new Aquatics Center, points to an improved collaborative environment for academic and athletic facility users,” said Fresno State President Joseph I. Castro.
The building will be constructed from steel, glass and cement. It has been designed to achieve the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver equivalency by using a combination of sustainable features including HVAC efficiency, energy efficient light fixtures and recycled content materials.
Construction is scheduled to start in June 2014 and be completed by July 2015.
For more information, contact Kathleen Schock, director of media and development communications, at 559.278.2756 or kschock@csufresno.edu
