Quad construction continues on Edinburg campus

The $5 million drainage construction project in the Quad on the Edinburg campus started in November 2021 and is expected to be completed this month, a university official says.

“We’re like 90%, a little bit over 90% done,” said Juan Ortiz, university architect.

The funding for the Quad in the center of the Edinburg campus comes from money leftover from the Interdisciplinary Engineering and Academic Building construction. Ortiz said the university wanted to use it for something good.

The Quad is situated between the Student Union and the Interdisciplinary Engineering and Academic Building, which members of the campus community walk through.

The brainstorming came in 2019, before COVID-19, but then Hurricane Hanna hit, along with a couple of other storms afterward, and that is when the idea “sparked,” he said.

A committee was formed to discuss ideas about how to prevent damage from storms like Hurricane Hanna.

“Initially, we were like, ‘Well, let’s just dig a big hole so that the water can go there, right?’” Ortiz said. “And the landscape architect said, ‘Well, you can do better than a big hole.’” 

This is when the idea for the drainage system popped up and the committee concluded the project would help the university.

“We’re controlling where the water goes,” Ortiz said.

Since the construction began, the Quad has been fenced off and pedestrian traffic has been rerouted.

“I hate that I can’t walk across campus,” Rochelle Cruz, a social work senior, told The Rider.

Cruz said she does not enjoy the longer walk since the weather has been hot. It has also affected her schedule.

 “Just trying to rush from class to class and get around all of it,” she said.

Although Cruz finds the construction difficult to get around, she is curious and sometimes tries to “peek through” the dark construction paper that has been put up. She said she has seen workers placing rocks and plants on the ground.

“I think it looks cute,” Cruz said. “I’m excited to see what it looks like at the end.”

Other students were unaware of the purpose of the construction.

“I don’t know what they’re doing in the Quad, actually,” said Madeline Camero, a philosophy and biology junior. 

Ortiz said UTRGV made a plan to renovate the Quad to give it the feeling of a “park environment” so that students walking past feel at ease.

“We really wanted to create better space, and a better student experience,” he said.

Those working on the project are ECON Group Enriquez Construction; the landscape architecture firm TEN EYCK; civil engineers Perez Consulting Engineers; mechanical, engineering and plumbing firm CNG Engineering, PLLC; structural engineers Architectural Engineers Collaborative; and irrigation system designers Sweeney & Associates, Inc.

The Quad will include a “seating area, furniture to sit down and hang out [and] tables,” according to Ortiz.

 “They’ll just be built-in elements that weren’t there before, benches, pathways,” he said, adding that trees will be planted to provide shade.

Ortiz wants the Quad to be one of the places where seniors take their pictures, and where alumni can come back and think “Wow, wish this was here … when we went to school here,” Ortiz said.

The university architect said he is excited about the project.“ Once all the landscape really starts to flourish, it’s going to be a very … iconic space to be around,” Ortiz said.