The sound of dribbling basketballs, the rhythm of dance music and the smell of chlorine wafting through Mabel Lee Hall might soon be a thing of the past.
The NU Board of Regents on Thursday approved a $40 million plan to either renovate the building on 14th Street between Vine and W streets or replace it altogether.
Either path would be a welcome change to the half century-old structure originally built to house UNL’s physical education programs for women that later became a mixed-use academic building in the heart of city campus.
Completed in 1968, Mabel Lee Hall was last renovated in 1997 when classrooms, computer labs and faculty offices were constructed among the existing pair of gyms, a swimming pool, dance studio and locker rooms.
Following budget cuts in 2003, UNL formed a combined College of Education and Human Sciences and made Mabel Lee Hall headquarters for its nearly 4,200 students enrolled in programs centered on child development, as well as youth and family studies.
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But while the focus of the building had shifted from its original intent of the late 1960s, Mabel Lee Hall continued to play host to a wide array of nonacademic programs, including some campus recreation opportunities and practice space for the Husker women’s gymnastics program.
The competing uses have been a way of life for staff over the last two decades, said Dori Smidt, assistant dean for business operations at the education college.
“You can sit there in my office and it just starts trembling because something is going on above you,†she said, adding the dribbling of basketballs and echoing of dance music reverberates throughout the building. “The mixed-use building isn’t the most feasible anymore.â€
At the same time, Mabel Lee Hall’s age has begun to show. Electrical and plumbing systems have fallen behind load requirements and stairwells have fallen out of compliance.
A third use for the building has also emerged, Smidt said — a home for insects and the bats that hunt them, as well as other rodents that scurry over the floor tiles needing to be replaced.
UNL pitched a plan to renovate Mabel Lee Hall in phases, so that education and activities there would be minimally disrupted, but as administrators and regents dove into the problem, it became clear small-scale renovations would have little effect.
Regents said they would let a team of architects determine what the best course for fixing the aging building would be — so long as that plan checked in under a $40 million cap.
“During the conversation, we reached the point where we felt like we should also investigate whether or not it’s more cost-effective to raze the current building and build a new facility,†NU President Hank Bounds said. “We’ll look at every option available.â€
The new Mabel Lee Hall will feature interactive and collaborative learning spaces — a common refrain for new higher education facilities — as well as traditional classrooms and lecture halls.
A new set of research labs, as well as faculty and graduate student offices, are also on the wish list.
Either plan — renovation or replacement — that comes back to the board under the $40 million limit can be signed off on by the regents’ business affairs committee to move ahead, Regent Bob Phares of North Platte explained, but plans exceeding $40 million would need approval of the full board.
NU expects to pay for the project through an existing funding mechanism that blends tuition revenue and state appropriations to upgrade buildings across NU’s campuses.
Through an $11 million annual contribution from both sources, NU has already begun renovation and replacement projects, including the Strauss Performing Arts Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the Otto C. Olsen Building at the University of Nebraska at Kearney and Williams Science Hall at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Bounds told regents that the capital-building project funds were allocated for specific purposes and couldn’t be used to plug a $49 million funding shortfall the university is addressing in its two-year operating budget.
“It can’t be used for any other purpose than renovation or construction of a facility,†Bounds said.
NU estimates the Mabel Lee Hall project will be done by 2021.