Near the Student Recreation & Fitness Center sits Farrior Hall, half made of brick and half of metal beams.
The hall, which is home to the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ advising office and UF’s Office of Student Life, has been under construction since December. The building will double in size by May 2016, said Joseph Spillane, the associate dean for student affairs.
The $25 million construction will create more study spaces, office spaces and a lecture hall, said Keith Carodine, senior associate athletics director of academic affairs. Both CLAS and the Office of Student Life have outgrown the current space.
The first floor of the expansion will feature a new lecture hall with 125 seats, and Carodine said it will be a good place for students to study.
The second and third floors will have office space for the Office of Student Life. Spillane said this will give the office more space to advise university athletes.
Once the addition is complete, the old portion of Farrior Hall will be renovated by December 2016, he said. The building is currently out of date, Carodine said.
The original Farrior Hall is 20 years old and was built specifically for academic advising, Spillane said. When Farrior was built, the initial bid for the project cost $3.6 million, he said. The new construction will be totally funded by the University Athletic Association.
UF political science freshman Seamus Love said he likes to study in Farrior Hall. He uses its quiet rooms, where no electronics are allowed.
The 19-year-old track-and-field runner goes to the hall for tutoring. He said athletes can request tutoring if they fill out an online form.
"My tutors help me a ton with study habits," Love said.
He said he is excited to have more room to study.
"It’s very crammed for space when I’m studying," Love said.
A lone construction worker climbs a ladder on Sept. 30, 2015, inside what will become the Otis Hawkins Center for Academic and Personal Excellence, an extension to Farrior Hall, the main academic advising building on UF's campus. Construction on the building is due to be completed December 2016.
