Students may be curious as to what building is under construction on West St. Marie Street. The Statesman asked John Rashid, associate director of the Department of Facilities Management, to explain. “The building on St. Marie is a utility building," Rashid said. "It is being constructed to add chillers to campus. Chillers are what provide chilled water for air conditioning on campus. The building also is enclosing an electrical substation. This substation is one of two main electrical feeds to campus.”
The existing electrical substation on St. Marie provides power for half of campus. As for the chillers, Rashid said UMD already has five and the new utility building brings the total up to seven.
“There’s certain buildings on campus that have air conditioning and certain ones that don’t,” Rashid said. “We’re adding capacity to add more air condition to campus.”
By KIM HYATT