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The University of Maine departments of new media and journalism and mass communication will soon be getting a new home equipped with a sound stage, laboratories and graduate research labs.
Owen Smith, director of new media, said the department has been working for two years to make the building a possibility. A bid to secure funding from the Maine Technology Asset Fund failed the first year, but after reviewing its proposal, the university went back a second time and secured money for the project.
“It’s a project that’s bringing together a number of different participants — the new media program is the lead — but it also involves the intermedia graduate program; it involves journalism and communication, and it involves the Foster center for innovation and it involves several businesses from around Maine,” Smith said.
The building will be an addition to Stewart Commons and will contain two new classrooms and equipment to test prototypes, in addition to its labs and sound stage. The project was approved by the system board of trustees in July; UMaine administration has approved the concept and location for the new building.
The project is expected to cost $5.6 million, according to Elaine Clarke, associate vice president for administration and finance. Two million comes from a gift from the Bank of America Inc., a 2007 bond and a campus project from 2008 that came in under budget. The remaining $3.6 million comes from the grant from the Maine Technology Asset Fund.
Stewart Commons, built in 1962, is a brick and mortar building. Clarke said a solar panel installation on the roof is another addition being considered for the project. Clarke said “the art department renovation is a very, very tight budget,” and that sharing the costs and benefits between the new media and the journalism and mass communication departments helps cut down on the financial pressure by distributing it among both. Clarke said the new addition will not intrude on the Stewart quad.
Construction on the new building will begin next year. Clarke estimates the building will be completed fall 2011.
“It’s difficult to predict this type of thing,” Clarke said. “It’s got good bones. It needs work, but it’s a good building.”
Smith said he has been working closely with professors Laura Lindenfeld, Nathan Stormer and Sunny Skye Hughes to accommodate the journalism and communication department and help draft the proposal.
“My expectation … is that the lab spaces over there … would be used for digital media production,” Stormer said.
Stormer said classes such as CMJ 351 and 451, which cover broadcast journalism, would likely use the laboratories and sound stage for media production. He said The Maine Channel will be allowed to use the sound stage as well.
“It’s not meant to be exclusive,” Stormer said.
Smith said he and professor Michael Socolow communicated on various aspects of the building as well. He said the bulk of the work of this project has been done by Smith.
“Journalism students … will be working on top-class machines with state-of-the-art software [in the new building],” Stormer said.
“The university will send a request for qualifications to secure an architect for the project next weekend,” Clarke said. Firms will have approximately one month to submit an application to bid for the project.
