Lyon moves forward with new campus center one year after dining hall burns
Published: October 26, 2011
Landon Downing remembers the sirens.
Distant at first, the Lyon College junior thought nothing of the sounds. But as he approached the college’s dining hall, Edwards Commons, he could see smoke.
Soon those sirens were upon him.
“There were only 10 or so students watching as smoke came out of the windows,” Downing said. “I thought it was just a grease fire. Never could I have imagined the building was actually burning.
“In awe, we watched the fire engulf so many memories,” he said. “The fire was stealing a vital tool in the community aspect of the college. Where would we meet? Where would we eat? What would come next?”
It has been one year since a four-alarm fire destroyed Edwards Commons, or Eds as it was affectionately called by faculty, staff, students and alumni, on the Lyon College campus. Investigators have not released a cause of the fire. No one was injured in the incident.
Edwards Commons housed student life offices, a bookstore, Lyon Den snackbar and game room in addition to the dining hall.
One year later, most of Edwards Commons has been leveled. The remaining portion of the building also will be razed.
“The loss of Eds was devastating, just as the loss of any center of life for a family would be devastating,” said 1988 alumnus Donald Rogers. “The Lyon family lost its living room for all practical purposes.”
College officials broke ground on the new nearly 44,000-square-foot student center and dining hall Oct. 21. The two-story student center will include a 352-seat dining hall, kitchen, deck, The Scot Shop, gaming center, health and wellness facilities, counseling offices, career development center, meeting spaces, student mailboxes and a bistro.
“This is an exciting moment,” Lyon College president Dr. Donald Weatherman said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “It has been a year ago since fire took down Edwards Commons. We have been working diligently to try and come up with a replacement.”
If everything stays on schedule, the building will be completed by the fall of 2012. The project is expected to cost approximately $9.6 million. Funding for the new student center will come from insurance proceeds from the Edwards Commons fire and from donations.
East-Harding Construction of Little Rock will be in charge of the project. Roark Perkins Perry Yelvington Architects of Little Rock are the architects.
The college is currently using a 270-seat temporary facility, know as The Temp, as the dining hall.