Depending on whom you ask, UCF stands for several different things. Officially, it’s the University of Central Florida. But if you ask students, you’ll often hear “U Can’t Finish” or “Under Construction Forever” instead. The constant construction at the university’s main campus keeps the school, now the second largest in the nation, on a forward-thinking path of evolution and improvement.

We start our journey through the school’s recent additions in early 2010 when the green thermal energy storage tank was completed. What exactly is that you ask? Essentially a cooling system composed of a three million gallon tank of stored cold water is dispersed overnight through unique water lines in an effort to save precious dollars while serving as an eco-friendly way to cool the buildings. This new system saves about $700,000 a year.

When prospective students and their families come to visit UCF through the main entrance, one of the first places they see is the Visitor Information Center, completed in June 2010. Formerly, the center was a set of trailers in a parking lot - arguably not the most attractive fixtures. “It was not a very nice entry to the campus,” says UCF Vice President for Administration and Finance, Bill Merk. “So the new building gives visitors a better first impression of the campus.”

The campus’ arts buildings are also undergoing a makeover. In August of 2010, phase one of Art Complex 2 was completed. This is the educational component of the music and theater phases at the school. In the future, phase two is looking to become the performance venue with recital halls and theaters. “The music and the theater folks will catch me on campus and tell me just how happy they are,” says Associate Vice President of Administration and Finance, Lee Kernek.

Completed in August of 2010, the Public Safety building, also known as the UCF Police Department, is now able to house all of UCF’s 62 sworn law enforcement officers in one place along with dispatch, community service officers, security components and Victim Services. Even though it’s on a college campus, make no mistake - this is a fully-operational law enforcement building complete with interview rooms, holding cells and evidence rooms.

This January of this year the Recreation and Wellness Center completed its latest expansion project providing 62,000 more square-feet for students to use for various cardio and fitness activities. Highlights include indoor racquetball courts, an outdoor adventure center and a new pool. “It has been extremely popular with students and heavily used,” says Merk.

As with other recent construction projects at the school, energy efficiency was at the forefront of the expansion. “Some of the elliptical machines are hooked up so that the energy that’s produced when you use the machine actually goes back in to help power the building,” says Chad Benette, UCF spokesperson.

In November of 2011, UCF is looking to use their energy even more effectively with the combined heat and power plant set to open. This green addition should be able to produce a third of the electricity needed on campus using natural gas - saving about $2.5 million a year.

As the nickname suggests, UCF is far from slowing down their aggressive construction schedule. Future projects already in the works include the Classroom 2/ROTC building which will be focused on large classrooms, reaching up to 450 seats. Additional housing in the Academic Village is also in the works, along with a new parking garage to go along with it.

“We’re essentially just keeping up with the demand on the part of the growing student body with these facilities,” says Merk. “In that sense, that’s why I feel good about ‘Under Construction Forever’ [because] we’re continuing to provide additional opportunities for students to come here.”

Article by Katelyn Dobkin

Avalon Park has always been a community for the ages - literally. With faciltities that range from daycare centers to tween boutiques and sports bars, Avalon appeals to a wide variety of age groups.

But, next year, Avalon Park Group will begin to integrate another age group into the community even more than they already have by building a three-story elderly living facility that will be placed near Downtown Avalon Park.

“Avalon is, for a lack of a better term, a cradle to grave community; you can be born here, you can live here, you can die here,” says Ross Halle, vice president of architecture for the Town Planning of Avalon Park Group. “To build a complete town, it was always thought that we needed to build all the living quarters for all the stages of life. Generally, it was a concept of the town, which is you have to provide all those various life stage living opportunities.”

According to Halle, the assisted living facility for seniors will be a 3-story, 80,000-square-foot building in the middle of the Avalon Park town center, across from Publix. It will be composed of 90 units, with 60 of those units dedicated to memory care and the remaining 30 units dedicated to assisted living. He explains that, within the building, it will break down into six smaller “neighborhoods” each consisting of 15 units. Each neighborhood will have a living room, a dining room, a spa and other activity areas.

In addition to that, its residents will have physical therapy and occupational facilities, a beauty salon, a health and wellness area, a community garden and an outdoor public courtyard for events.

An outreach room is one of the main amenities that will be offered to the seniors as well. “Our goal is reaching out to the community and getting them involved and having a facility for them to be involved in,” says Halle.

Recently, the development world has gotten back into realizing that senior living facilities are a viable market for various reasons, according to Halle. “There is a huge gap in the market place, as baby boomers age, how they’re going to be taken care of because there’s not enough facilities to take care of them as a population,” he says.

Halle says that right now the strongest need is memory care. In the upcoming project, it will be one of their main focuses because the safety concerns that come with it.

“The demand for memory care is something that is really lacking and really needed because it’s that that stage where people are at the most risk of wandering and being lost and never being found,” he says.

All you’ve done your entire life is work with your hands. Building, wiring, framing. It’s a tough job, but it’s one you own - the bitter taste of long hours in the sun are offset by the tangible sweetness an honest, good-sized paycheck brings home to your wife and two children. Work is booming and a hard days’ work has never gone further - until, one day, the phone stops ringing.

Welcome to the life of former Bithlo area resident, 29-year-old Kenneth Cross. Several years ago, Cross worked in the construction industry, partnered with his brother Leo, framing roofs of residential homes at a hectic pace. But, as the economy took a downturn in Central Florida, the residential housing market crashed and Cross was left with no work and little hope.

“About three years ago it started to get so slow and if there was work, no one was paying anything,” he says. “My brother and I were just getting into making good money and if it had lasted just a little bit longer, we would’ve been alright.”

Instead, Cross was forced to take up an on-again, off-again landscaping position to help make ends meet. His family has been forced to use food stamps to eat. His wife has become almost the sole supporter for the household, still struggling to survive and raise two young children.

When the calls stopped coming in, Cross remembers being concerned first, then angry at what was going on around him. “I was concerned because we were hurting for money,” he says. “After doing so well for a long period of time, working steady - to go to not making money was rough.”

Then the anger set in. According to Cross, when there was work, it was being given to illegal immigrants who would underbid projects and work for pennies on the dollar. “You just couldn’t do it as cheap or as fast because they had so many guys,” he remembers. “There was nothing we could do to compete.”

Down but certainly not out, Cross decided that it was time for a change. He was going to use his construction skills for something else - he was going to build himself a new career.

Deciding to temporarily put down the hammers and pick up the books, Cross enrolled himself at Valencia Community College and began pursuing a degree in engineering. “I wanted to stay in construction because I’ve already got the experience there,” he says. “My goal for the future, what I’d really like to do, is design the roof trusses on houses after the architect gets done with the initial plans.”

However, with just a few semesters to go before earning his degree from Valencia, an old contact came calling - he had work installing siding on apartments. Not wanting to turn the opportunity to make money and provide for his growing family, Cross stepped away from his education to become the chief family earner again. But, just like the construction industry, the work isn’t steady.

“I work whenever he has work, sometimes it’s a few days a week, sometimes it’s more; last time I worked four days straight, but I’ve been out of work for a little over a week because he hasn’t had any for me to do it,” says Cross. “It’s sporadic at best.”

Cross has now missed the last two semesters of school in favor of providing for his family. But, perhaps most importantly, through the entire situation, he has never given up.

“Its been a tough road, but we’ve made the most of it,” he says.

Article by Corey Gehrold

By now, if you’ve driven down Woodbury Road, you’ve noticed the construction commissioned by the City of Orlando Public Works Department that began on July 27, 2009. The project, officially titled the Eastern Regional Reclaimed Water Distribution System (ERRWDS) Phase II Contract 1B, is set to install approximately 16,000 feet of 42-inch diameter ductile iron reclaimed water main piping south along Woodbury Road. Officially, the project begins 1,500 feet south of State Road 50 and continues to the intersection of Golfway Boulevard before going under the pavement of the southbound lane of Golfway and across South Alafaya Trail. Its final destination will be west to the Orange County Eastern Regional Water Reclamation Facility.

The pipeline stems from a project commissioned in the early 2000’s by the region’s various water management districts to come up with a 20 year water management plan says Allen Oyler, public works director for the City of Orlando. “There was some computer modeling done and we found that in a few years we will be reaching our sustainability limit, so we have to look elsewhere for water,” he says.

Outside of the St. John’s River, the next biggest source for water is reclaimed water that has been highly treated and designated as safe for certain uses, such as irrigation. “The majority of water we use is not for personal use like drinking or hygiene,” says Oyler. “It’s for irrigation. Roughly 55 to 60 percent of water use from OUC is used for irrigation or watering lawns, and reclaimed water is perfectly suited for that use.” According to Oyler, the reclaimed water is far cheaper than the next best alternative, the St. John’s River. “We should save our drinking water for drinking and use this perfectly safe water for irrigation purposes,” he says.

This segment will be the last leg of the pipeline to connect the north portion of the line with the south portion, successfully completing the system. “The system not only helps to further conserve water, but it will also save a good amount of money moving forward,” Oyler says. “I understand residents will be inconvenienced but I cannot stress enough the importance of this project for the region as a whole. Ultimately this will help residents and the rest of the region the in long term regional plan.”

The $5,206,568 project is scheduled to be completed in July 2010. Northbound lanes of Woodbury Road and Golfway Boulevard will be modified to maintain two-way traffic during construction, although delays are expected. Project work is scheduled to take place from 7:00 a.m. through 3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, except on city designated holidays. The project will effect roadways and possible sidewalks in front of Waterford Lakes Elementary and Discovery Middle school, which has some officials concerned, at least for the time being. “My biggest concern, and I believe that this will be answered, is ensuring student safety on their way to and from school is in place,” says Daryl Flynn, school board member for District 2. “It’s important that we work together and I’m confident we will find a solution.”

“We plan to do work immediately in front of the schools around holiday break in December because there simply isn’t enough time to complete that at the end of the summer,” says Oyler. Safety for the kids is a high priority for all parties involved. “There may be challenges along the course of the year but from the initial impressions I’ve been given, they seem committed to impacting the schools as little as possible,” says Flynn.

Want to learn more about the project? Follow along on it’s official Web site by clicking here.

Article by Corey Gehrold

A new partnership building in the Central Florida Research Park will help Metro Orlando keep and add thousands of high-tech, high-wage modeling and simulation jobs and remain a national leader in that expanding industry.

The University of Central Florida and the military will share the Partnership III building, which will be home to UCF Institute for Simulation & Training laboratories and related modeling and simulation research. The UCF facility, scheduled to open in fall 2010, will be built to meet at least the silver level of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.

UCF President John Hitt will join military and elected officials at a groundbreaking ceremony Friday, July 10, at the building site, next to the Partnership II building in the Central Florida Research Park. Guests will arrive at 8:15 a.m., and the program will begin at 8:45 a.m.

Speakers will include state Rep. Dean Cannon, retired state Sen. Dan Webster, Orange County Commissioner Bill Segal and Rear Admiral Donald Gaddis, commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division and assistant commander for Research and Engineering, Naval Air Systems Command.

Meg Crofton, vice chairman of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission and president of the Walt Disney World Resort, also is scheduled to speak.

Led by Cannon and Webster, state legislators worked hard to fund Partnership III and related enhancements to buildings that house military agencies in the Research Park. The funding enabled the Department of Defense to meet new security requirements for its personnel working in the area.

The Metro Orlando area is a national leader in modeling, simulation and training, with more than 100 companies that directly or indirectly generate nearly 17,000 jobs in the region. New and expanding companies are attracted to Central Florida in part because of the presence of the military and Institute for Simulation & Training.

U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps simulation offices based in the Research Park expect to award more than $5 billion in contracts this year, and much of that money remains in the Metro Orlando area.

The 118,860-square-foot Partnership III building will be constructed next to Partnership II and will be a mirror image of that building, saving the state about $500,000 in design costs.