Pace breaks ground on $100M project

As Pace University marks its 50th anniversary, college officials announced plans for a $100 million multiphase project for its Pleasantville campus that includes new residence halls and athletic facilities.

“This project, together with new academic programs and related enhancements, represents a significant investment in and commitment to the future of the Pleasantville campus,” Pace President Stephen J. Friedman said.

The project, which is expected to use 550 construction workers, also includes upgrades and expansions of the student and environmental centers, renovations on existing buildings and infrastructure and improvements on pedestrian accessibility.

Government officials, faculty, staff, students and alumni gathered Oct. 23 for the groundbreaking ceremony, which took place on the environmental center lawn. One of the project”™s aims is to consolidate the Pleasantville and Briarcliff Manor campuses, including athletic facilities and administrative functions.

Currently, 690 students live on the Pleasantville campus and 590 reside at Briarcliff and commute to Pleasantville via bus. The construction of three residence halls will eliminate the 3,000 bus trips annually between the two campuses. The 35-acre Briarcliff campus, which Pace opened in 1977, is for sale.

The project begins with construction of three four-story residence halls, which will increase the number of beds on campus from 690 to 1,400. Also included are: creating multipurpose artificial turf fields for football, soccer and lacrosse; adding artificial turf to the existing baseball field as well as lighting; constructing a new field house at the south end of the multipurpose field; creating a grass softball field at the southwest corner of the campus and adding a tennis court to the existing three. The Kessel Student Center will be renovated and the space expanded with a welcome center.

“This master plan is a vision for a modern and sustainable campus designed to improve the student experience,” said William J. McGrath, senior vice president and chief administrative officer at Pace.

The estimated project completion date is summer 2016.

“Reconstruction may cause an interference with the campus, but we must remain diligent and focus on seeing the positive,” said Qadry Harris, a junior at Pace.

Although Qadry, vice president of a student government association, said his graduating class won”™t get to see all the renovations, he”™s looking forward to a larger meeting space for his unity and social justice club in the future. He added that he”™ll come back to see the finished work on the campus for alumni events and homecoming.

Pace will preserve more than 60 percent of its campus green space by retaining a 115-acre internal wooded buffer around the north, east and southeast portions of the campus. Bedford Road driveways will be reduced from five to three, which will improve the appearance of the campus road frontage. Near the student center is a pond that is filled with moss and sediment. The project calls for cleaning it and creating a pathway that wraps around the pond.

The environmental center buildings, which will be relocated to the space north of the Goldstein Health and Fitness Center, will be LEED Gold certified, which makes them environmentally sustainable, said Richard Schlesinger, associate dean at Pace. The buildings will be connected to a nature walk that allows environmental studies students to study the ecosystems existing in the green space, he said.

Pace University, which has campuses in lower Manhattan and White Plains, enrolls nearly 13,000 students in bachelor”™s, master”™s and doctoral programs through Lubin School of Business, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, College of Health Professionals, School of Education, School of Law, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. It”™s the 13th largest employer in the county and contributes $64 million annually to the county”™s economy in direct and indirect spending, said Robert P. Astorino, county executive. Of its total workforce, 934 live and work in Westchester and of that total, 205 live in the town of Mount Pleasant.