North Texas Daily

Julia Falcon | Staff Writer

Construction on the University Union will be completed later this semester, which means the temporary buildings on campus will be taken down, and the services offered inside will be moved to the new Union.

The temporary buildings that house  the Barnes and Noble tent and the food pavilion were set up around campus and have been in use for the duration of the construction.

David Reynolds, the associate vice president for facilities at UNT, said once the University Union is complete, the temporary buildings will be taken down and the areas will go back to their previous uses.

“The Barnes and Noble tent was leased,” Reynolds said. “It will be removed from campus and returned, and the same thing will happen with the food court.”

Like the cost-free move of Barnes and Noble, other student services like counseling, dance, and theater got moved to Welch Hall as their temporary location during the construction, UNT spokeswoman Leslie Minton said.

When the temporary buildings are taken down, the space will remain empty and free to use for faculty and student body.

“We are going to leave the turf areas as they were, and we will be thinking of things to support McConnell Hall,” Reynolds said. “That area is like their backyard, so we want to make it into something useable, where the residents could throw a frisbee and just hang out.”

Features of the spacious new University Union include the Barnes and Noble bookstore,  Design Works, Eagle Images, a Wells Fargo branch, a dance room, a meditation room and a lactation room. The Union also sports more environmentally friendly features such as a rooftop garden, low-emitting and low hazardous materials, censored faucets, dual flush toilets and low-flow urinals.

“I am anxiously awaiting the finish of the new union,” Reynolds said. “I am looking forward to campus going back to how it used to be and how beneficial it will be in the future.”