By Victor Freeman
The Scene staff
Most people on the Forest Park campus have heard about “St. Louis Community College Transformed,” but administrators stopped by campus last week to provide more details on widespread plans for modernization and beautification.
For example, Forest Park President Julie Fickas described how the Hospitality Studies building will be completely redesigned and renovated. The plan is to switch around kitchens on the first floor, making them more modern and efficient, and to put storage spaces where they actually make sense.
“The Hospitality Studies upstairs is going to get refreshed,” Fickas said. “And we’re still working on a few things as far as whether we can connect the Hospitality Studies building to the second floor of the Student Center.”
Fickas and other STLCC administrators appeared at a campus forum on April 9 in Cafe East to discuss STLCC Transformed, an initiative to spend about $450 million for improvements on the college’s four campuses. It was made possible by passage of Proposition R in a special election in 2021, when district voters agreed to raise property taxes.
At Forest Park, plans include construction of a new Transportation Center; demolition of the Highland Park building; and renovation of the Hospitality Studies building, Student Center and West Wing’s lower level.
But all this activity will have a downside, according to Chief Operations Officer Hart Nelson. Campus operations will be disrupted, and parking problems are likely to get worse before they get better.
“There is overflow parking, but it’s not particularly useful overflow parking,” Hart said. “Is there going to be more parking when the construction and renovation is done? There will be. … Fall is the worst it’s going to be.”
Construction has already begun on the Transportation Center, on the south side of campus. It’s expected to be completed next year. The Highland Park building, where the truck-driving program is based, will be demolished this summer.
Truck-driving and the automotive technology program, which is now on the West Wing’s lower level, will move into the Transportation Center, and ceramics classes from the Art Annex will move into the West Wing’s lower level. A fleet of big trucks will park in the vacant Highland Park space.
Student Center renovations will include the admissions office, Student Advocacy Resource Center, TRiO, Campus Life, the testing center and Highlander Lounge. The dining room (formerly known as the cafeteria) will be redesigned to make it more of a cafe experience, according to Fickas.
“The dining room will no longer look like a 1990s kind of place,” she said, noting that the courtyard between the Hospitality Studies building and Student Center also will be “beautified” with plants.
Other plans include waterproofing the basement levels. Flooding has caused damage in the past, Hart said.
Administrators at the campus forum discussed other renovations that are part of a “wish list” that could become a reality if additional funding is available.
“We have X number of dollars, so don’t get your hopes up everybody for all the little nuances of what you want to do,” Fickas said. “We’re going to do our best with the dollars we have.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct an error. The college’s Highland Park building will be demolished in 2025 or 2026, not this summer.