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EXCLUSIVE: Wilkes Revamps Parking Areas: Much Parking Will Shift to South Main Street, With a Current Lot Going Green.

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Kris Wernowsky, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

Jun. 7--WILKES-BARRE -- A more than $2 million project at Wilkes University will replace dozens of parking spaces on campus with more than 3 acres of green space.

A construction crew began ripping up parking lot pavement last week behind Chesapeake/Delaware Hall on West Northampton Street. Once the rubble is gone, the area will be turned into an additional 3.2 acres of green space in the central campus greenway area, which sits between South Franklin and South River streets, according to Wilkes University spokeswoman Christine Seitzinger.

The parking spaces removed will be replaced by spots at the University Center on Main parking garage in the 100 block of South Main Street, which means a short foot-commute for Wilkes faculty and students, Seitzinger said.

"Parking is always a favorite subject around here," said Jack Chielli, the university's executive director of marketing and communications. "The parking garage actually added more spaces to what we already had."

The plans also call for the expansion and renovation of the Chesapeake/Delaware residence hall, which is on Northampton Street between South Franklin and South River streets.

The upgraded residential housing complex will add 12 beds to the 52-bed residence hall originally constructed as apartment buildings in the 1880s, according to the Wilkes University Web site.

While the addition to the hall doesn't spell a major addition in beds to the already 1,000 on-campus housing spaces available for students, the renovations will update the hall and offer hardwired and Wi-Fi Internet access, central air conditioning, new furniture and a central skylight.

The project also displaced the kiln used by art students and faculty in the ceramics studio once housed in the basement of the Stark Learning Center. The university relocated the ceramics studio earlier this year to the former Bedford Hall garage near the intersection of South and South River streets.

The construction phase for the residence hall is scheduled for completion in 2007-08 academic year and has a price tag of about $1.5 million. In the meantime, the university will lease space off-campus to house students while crews work to complete the hall, Seitzinger said.

The landscaping portion of the project, which will cost an estimated $600,000, should be completed by October, Seitzinger said.

Records show the city's zoning board granted the college a zoning variance at a meeting on May 18 to change the architectural footprint of the Chesapeake/Delaware Hall and to eliminate the off-street parking.

On the Web

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To view more images of the upgrades to the Chesapeake/Delaware Hall visit www.timesleader.com [http://www.timesleader.com].

Kris Wernowsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7329.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

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