Center of College Avenue Campus to be renovated, Barchi says

University President Robert L. Barchi, in an email to the University community, highlighted Rutgers’ accomplishments over the past seven years in his University Senate report, including raising the amount of research achieved, the establishment of honors colleges and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) and the University's transition to the Big Ten. 

Also among Barchi’s accomplishments is the building of more than $1 billion worth of construction projects. In an interview with The Daily Targum, Barchi said that the next immediate project is to build The Hub @ New Brunswick, a center for Rutgers, companies and business partners to connect, and a revitalization of the area on the College Avenue campus between the Rutgers Fitness Center and the Raritan River. 

“The biggest piece that is moving forward is the project here, on the other side of Bishop (Street), that will cut across the campus from the Barn (Rutgers Fitness Center) to the river,” Barchi said. “And, hopefully, with a pedestrian bridge from the start of the river to the park.”

To do this, Rutgers will have to begin the removal of Records Hall, a building behind Brower Commons, and then upgrade a co-generational plant for the campus, Barchi said. 

Brower Commons will ultimately be replaced as well, but its replacement must be built before the current cafeteria on the College Avenue campus is removed, Barchi said. 

“Those projects are actually underway, and they’re the preliminaries to the major project,” Barchi said. “That’ll be a huge asset to the campus.”