Keeping DSU green comes at a price. Last month, Dakota State University President José-Marie Griffiths announced that the university would build its new IT building on the parking lot south of Heston Hall, on the east side of Washington Avenue, thus sparing the sylvan lawn in front of East Hall from being supplanted with glass and steel and protecting the aesthetic integrity of Madison’s historic district.
But the Board of Regents will have to spend $40,000 to acquire that parking lot. Included in the four-part package of legislation the Regents will review today for proposal to the 2016 Legislature is a bill to appropriate $40,000 to buy the Heston Hall parking lot (formally, “Lot 6 and lot 7 in Block 1 and the vacated portion of 7th street lying parallel and adjacent there to of Willard’s Addition”) from the DSU Foundation.
I suppose we could grumble that putting the new IT building on alternative proposed sites like the newly vacated hospital block or on top of Lowry Hall wouldn’t have cost this extra chunk. But this land acquisition increases the $11,400,000 price tag ($366 per square foot) of the new IT building by only 0.35%. But look on the bright side: pass this legislation, and the DSU Foundation can give out another $40,000 in scholarships! It’s just too bad they can’t give that new money to students majoring in horticulture or urban design.
Sure seems strange to tear up a perfectly good and well-located parking lot. Cory’s shot doesn’t go up to the hospital/clinic, but there’s limited new parking up there. Will they end up needing more parking? Will they look south to get rid of Girton House and the others? The community was right. The campus is beautiful. Keep it that way. We lost Kennedy Hall which was destructive enough.
They might even have their eye on Dick Wiedenman’s house as a lot for the higher ups.