Daytona Beach, FL – Construction on a new student union at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is officially underway.
Construction crews tore down the façade of the Jack R. Hunt Memorial Library on Monday, sending it backwards into the hollowed-out interior a week after demolition began.
ERAU spokesman James Roddey says all traces of the library – where tens of of thousands of Embry-Riddle students studied over the past 30 years – will be gone by the end of the summer.
“Months of prep work will follow before a new structure begins to rise,” Roddey added.
That new structure – a 175,000+ square-foot student union with a $75 million price tag – is expected to be complete by the fall of 2017.
ERAU officials say the library will be rebuilt inside the new student union and other features will be added around it. That includes a Starbucks coffee shop, restaurants, 135 computer stations, 40 group study rooms, a student events center capable of hosting concerts, a glass-walled lounge area and a rooftop terrace.
Roddey says the new building will have a circular design and a roof inspired by a bird in flight, appropriate for a school whose athletic teams are known as the Eagles.
“The student union will become the center of student life at the Daytona Beach campus,” Roddey stated. “When finished, [it] will be one of the most iconic buildings on any university campus in the country.”
The design of the building was created in part with input from students, faculty and staff, according to Roddey.
The video above and renderings below of the new student union are courtesy of ERAU.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.