Have you walked down Euclid Avenue on the north part of campus recently and wondered what’s going on with all the construction? Last month, local developing firm MRN Ltd. began construction on the UPTOWN project, a large-scale rejuvenation of the area on Euclid Avenue between Mayfield Road and E. 115 Street. By spring 2012, lots of new attractions and housing will be open to the public.

102 new apartment units are expected to be available by late 2011. These apartments will be convenient options very close to campus for upper-class CWRU, CIA, and CIM students. Kevin Slesh, Director of Commercial Development at CWRU, says that there will be “one-bedroom and two-bedroom units that will have monthly rents in the range of $750-$2,000 per month.”

There will also be a mix of restaurants, bars, and other retailers. The mainstay of the retail end of the project is a Barnes and Noble, which Slesh said “will serve as CWRU’s bookstore for textbooks and other CWRU paraphernalia.” In addition to residential and commercial construction, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) plans to begin building its new museum before the end of this year. It will be located at the corner of Euclid and Mayfield, and MOCA plans to open it by spring 2012.

There is also great news for CIA students regarding the Joseph McCullough Center. CIA is currently undergoing a complete campus “modernization and unification project,” according to the school’s blog. By the end of this year, CIA hopes to transfer the campus library from the Gund Building on East Boulevard to the ground floor of the JMC. However, that is just the first phase of the overall scheme.

Phase two, expected to begin next year, centers around “the construction of a visually distinctive new building immediately west of and fully interconnected to McCullough.” All classes will then be conducted in brand new classrooms in the JMC, equipped with the best technology available. At the conclusion of this massive undertaking, CIA’s campus will be fully unified for the first time in over 25 years.

If construction remains on schedule, students and residents of University Circle should be able to take advantage of all of these exciting additions by spring of 2012.