Renovated Hub to reopen soon

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Florida
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<p>After $10 million and nearly three years of renovation, the Hub will completely open March 19, a UF official said Tuesday. </p>

<p>In addition to the food court already there, the Hub will house the UF Computing Help Desk, a Starbucks and the UF International Center, project manager Bahar Armaghani said. </p>

<p>The Hub will also feature public and private workspaces in which students can study, according to UF's Facilities Planning & Construction Web site. </p>

<p>Some other additions include walk-up Internet access stations, an art gallery, and video and audio studios. </p>

<p>It will also be home to several departments within UF's Office of Academic Technology. </p>

<p>Armaghani said the International Center would start relocating Monday and finish around the first week of March. </p>

<p>However, the help desk will have to wait until Spring Break, when most students won't need its assistance, to make the move, she added. </p>

<p>Armaghani said Starbucks' move would also take place over the break. </p>

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<p>The second floor of the newly renovated Hub remained empty Monday, save for some paint rollers, carpet squares and light fixtures littering the newly installed carpet.</p>

<p>But downstairs was a line out the door of students with questions about study abroad applications waiting to get into the University of Florida's International Center in its new location.</p>

<p>The $10 million renovation project, which took nearly 13 months to complete, transformed part of the building that once held the University Bookstore into several offices and a cafe-style, high-tech study hall. The departments that are to occupy the space will be moving in over the next couple of weeks.</p>

<p>Lynn Frazier, executive associate director of the International Center, said her office relocated Monday morning and officials scrambled to ensure phones and fax machines were operational. She said the move caused few setbacks to the approaching study abroad deadlines because most of the applications are filed online.</p>

<p>But the new digs are a major upgrade from the cubicles the office operated out of in Grinter Hall.</p>

<p>"We're still in the process of moving in," Frazier said. "It's very exciting. The building is very beautiful. The environment has much improved."</p>

<p>The Office of Academic Technology will move in upstairs during Spring Break and Starbucks will open in a first-floor location the following week.</p>

<p>The lobby is home to an Internet cafe, which will be open the same time as the Hub, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the building is equipped with wireless Internet.</p>

<p>Eight TVs line the western wall of the lobby. Channels from Japan, Russia and South Korea, among others, broadcast via satellite in the native language of the respective nation.</p>

<p>Frazier expects the 55,000-square-foot facility to be operational March 19, the day classes resume from Spring Break. She hopes the central location will promote integration.</p>

<p>"This place will be hopping then," she said. "This will be a student hub for both international and domestic students."</p>

<p>Small details are still being sorted through, which was evident from the impromptu meeting in which Frazier had to discuss how many trash cans should be placed in the Internet cafe and where they should go.</p>

<p>The entire section of the Hub west of the stairs has been remodeled and features video conferencing suites, consulting, workgroup spaces supported with multimedia and video conferencing and an art and technology gallery, according to a news release. Charged printing services will also be available.</p>

<p>The UF Computing Help Desk and Learning Support Services will also call the Hub home.</p>

<p>The food court east of the stairs has seen some minor changes in the past year as well. A Quiznos Express opened last fall near already established Chick-Fil-A and Einstein Bros. Bagels.</p>

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