The area between Mabee Hall and the Don Morris Center will be transformed into a lawn and patio.

Scot Colley, executive director of Risk Management and Construction, said the area was dug up for part of the loop line construction project, which began in mid-May and has reached completion. He said, for the most part, the area is shaded throughout the day and a patio would clean up that part of campus.

He said the concrete patio will come out at the back door and go down about 50 feet in length. The remainder of the space will be made into a lawn.

Colley said part of the project will include installing a handicap ramp to the front entrance of Mabee.

Construction will begin in a couple of weeks, he said.

“The pipe stuff is all done,” he said. “All that’s in ground, that’s finished. But that last part, we’ve kind of pulled off and done a few other things that we needed to take care of. We’re working on those and we’ll get right back to that.”

ACU Construction will oversee the work. Colley said the project should be completed by Christmas break.

“Hopefully it’ll provide a nice shaded area that’ll be a little more useful than the front patio on Mabee right now, because that one’s so hot,” he said. “It just stays in the sun all the time. There’s no cover. And it will make an area that’s not used kind of usable and provide hopefully a fun place to get together.”