USC shares plan to update campus from Main Street to Williams-Brice. What’s changing?
Improved athletic venues, more parking and transportation options, replacing a dorm and renovating several buildings are all part of a newly approved “road map” for the next decade of development at the University of South Carolina.
Transforming the hundreds of acres near Williams-Brice Stadium is one goal, and the school also wants to partner with state and local government to create more pedestrian routes to the Congaree River. And University architect Derek Gruner said USC will continue to be a key player in redeveloping South Main Street in downtown Columbia.
“The university and the entire community benefit from a campus plan that provides an inspiring vision for the future,” USC board chair Thad Westbrook said.
Enrollment growth in recent years, and an estimated future growth of about 2% per year, has allowed for much of the projects outlined in USC Next, the new name for the master plan. The student body has grown by more than 4,500 students in the last 10 years and by about 9,000 in the last 15 years.
Each project will require individual approval by the board, and officials are still seeking financing for some of them.
Some plans are already in motion.
The university expects to break ground in early 2025 on a new medical school, a 308,000-square-foot, $300-million building in the heart of Columbia’s BullStreet district. Completion is projected for 2027. It’s the first building in the sprawling, 16-acre health campus that could be developed further in the near future.
McBryde, a badly aged residence hall located near the heart of the Horseshoe, is also set to be replaced. The USC board of trustees approved an initial design phase in the spring. The building would likely be demolished and new ones erected in its place. USC is also working to add a wing to the Honors College residence hall at the corner of Blossom and Main streets.
Both projects will raise the number of available beds on campus by more than 600.
The Science and Technology building and the Thomas Cooper Library are set to be revamped too. The university planned to remove some 200,000 “low-use” books from the library’s shelves earlier this year, The State reported, to potentially make way for renovations that could include more study space.
USC is also seeking a partner to redevelop the newly purchased Rutledge Building at Bull and Senate streets, which had previously been the home of the South Carolina Department of Education.
Seven historic homes on College and Henderson streets could be renovated, preserved and repurposed with the help of private developers.
“While not every project imagined in the plan will come to fruition, USC Next provides a valuable perspective on the university’s infrastructure and how to design it to best accommodate our current and future needs,” USC President Amiridis said.
