I made it back to campus last weekend. For those who haven't visited lately, these were my impressions of the changes going on...

Practice Fields: The artificial turf field looks to be all smoothly graded (still dirt) and ready for surfacing. I assume they'll soon put down some type of solid material (alphalt-like) to lay the turf over. It is right next to the walkway along Shrank. Lights are already installed. The 60-yd grass field will be just south of it by Exchange street and is still all dug up. I suppose it won't take long to level it out and lay sod if they want to use it this season.

Rec Ctr/Fieldhouse: The exterior looks pretty much finished. The north side facing the JAR is a little funny looking to me and the free-standing arches I'm not sure about yet. I think I would have opted for 1 or 2 4-sided structures instead of the 3 one-directional ones that only really make sense as you're walking toward the front door. I'll postpone a final analysis until they're done with the Carroll/Brown plaza which it appears will be intersecting concrete walkways with inlaid brickwork.

Brown/Union Streets: The biggest surprise to me was that they had dug out the road that was Brown & Union between JAR/Memorial and Olin/Library (right now it's just piles of dirt). I didn't know that was going on at this time. Hopefully it will be one of the new "green spaces" with a smaller walkway and lots of grass/trees and not all hard surface like Buchtel Mall. Regardless, it will be much nicer than having the road cut through campus.

Honors Complex: The exterior is quite far along, nearly finished-looking. I think they'll really have to hustle to get the interior ready for occupancy this fall. It is quite imposing and probably right on the geographical center of campus. A couple more dorms like this around the edges of campus would really make UA start to feel like a residential type of college.

Student Union: Phase II is also taking on a finished look as the angled east end is up and glass installed. Not sure what else to say except it looks good & will be a cool place to hang out for the students.

Student Affairs Building: Looks like they still have a ways to go on this one and it's still hard to guage what the finished product will look like exactly. I'll be surprised if it's ready for the start of school as currently scheduled. But no doubt it will be very nice and convenient for the students, a far cry from the days of Spicer Hall.

I'm already looking forward to my next trip, probably around mid-August.

P.S. The new Akron Public Library seems to have made a quantum leap in progress. This has been a very slow project, IMO. But now it's looking a lot more finished and will be a big plus for downtown Akron. You should drive by it if you're back in town.

Construction project status recently updated on http://www.uakron.edu:

<a href='http://www3.uakron.edu/capplan/projects/curproj.html' target='_blank'>http://www3.uakron.edu/capplan/projects/curproj.html</a>