The Mary Graydon Center will receive a 9,000 square foot addition at the end of this semester that will see new spaces added and the permanent closure of Jamba Juice.
The bridge project, as it is known, will begin in late May, according to Michael Elmore, senior director of the University Center. The bridge currently connecting the quad to the Butler pavilion will be knocked down and a new area will be built containing a relocated information desk, a new entrance off the quad and a function room on the terrace level connected to the Terrace Dining Room.
"There will be a new room under the bridge, which can become a future home of many evening and weekend programs such as dances, small concerts, student theatrical groups like Vagina Monologues and Rude Mechanicals," Elmore said in an e-mail. "It will be an activity space that also serves as an extension to TDR in peak dining times."
All construction is slated to finish in time for the fall 2007 semester.
In the summer of 2007, the Tavern will be renovated and the University Club rooms will be recarpeted. The Mary Graydon first floor lounges will be renovated in summer 2007 as well.
Besides the new function space, Jamba Juice and Mary Graydon Center Room 120 will close for good.
"Jamba Juice is closing, and that will be the end of Jamba Juice at American University," said Julie Weber, the executive director of Housing and Dining Programs. "It can't stay in its current position because the noise creates a problem in the Tavern, and the cost to move it to the tunnel would take 30 years to pay off."
Some students said they are not surprised it is closing.
"It hasn't gotten a lot of business this year," said Kaley Walker, a sophomore in the School of Communication. "Last year with meal plans it was packed. They're really expensive."
However, Weber said removing Jamba Juice from the meal equivalency plan is not the reason it is closing and losing money.
"Sales long before we took the equivalency away had dropped dramatically," she said.
Some students said they would not miss Jamba Juice.
"I'm not upset to see it go; I haven't gone there lately," Walker said.
"I haven't gone to Jamba Juice since they stopped taking meal swipes," said Kerry Cassidy, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Claire Plante, a freshman in CAS, disagreed, saying she will miss Jamba Juice.
"I'm upset," she said. "I love it; it's so good. When you're in a rush for class, it's filling."
A Jamba Juice employee who would not provide a name when asked last week about the closing said he was surprised by Jamba Juice's closing.
"Don't take our shop away," he said.
The ultimate goal of the expansion is to make the University Center "AU's center for student and community life," Elmore said.
"Step one was the second floor renovation in 2000-01. This is step two. When SOC moves to McKinley, the third floor of Mary Graydon will be step three," Elmore said in the e-mail.
However, some students said they don't believe a building extension will unify campus.
"I don't really know that fixing that will make the campus unified," said Justin Mushnick, a freshman in SOC.
