The Holmes Student Center reconstruction will be completed by the first week of December as the contractors install the outside panels faster than was expected.

“Rich Cullen, in charge of the installation of the stone panels, is doing a super job. We thought we would be putting up 21 to 25 panels per day but we are able to put up 35 panels per day,” Conrad Miller, assistant director of the physical plant said.

Contractors are now concentrating on adding the final touches to the $2.4 million dollar student center project.

Miller said the new windows will be installed on the north side of the building on Sept. 25. The windows on the east and south side of the student center will be changed during the first week in November.

Work on the west side of the student center is completed and the panels are up to the 10th floor on the north and east side of the building. Miller said the contractors should be finished with paneling by the end of October or the first week of November.

The 16-floor student center changed from regular brick to the limestone panels because the bricks were falling away from the building as water seeped behind them, Miller said. “When the weather got cold the water froze and when water freezes it expands pushing the bricks out from the side,” he said.

“Brick was not the most durable thing to put on the building that high. The Indiana limestone does not require a lot of maintenance and makes the building more attractive,” he said. The limestone being used on the student center is the same type of stone that was used to construct the Empire State Building, he said.

The top of the student center will be crowned with a pyramid shaped roof made of copper and it will be reinforced with steel beams from the inside, he said.

An airconditioning system will be placed inside the pyramid. There will be ridge lighting along the base and the four corners extending to the top of the pyramid. Miller said that the roof will cost $24,000.