Marking the construction of a new, four-story residence hall SUNY Fredonia will hold the groundbreaking ceremony for its Cranston Hall Project, Wednesday, Sept. 22, at 2 p.m. A reception will follow in the Williams Center. The public is invited.
 
Local and state officials will convene in the Williams Center Multipurpose Room at 2 p.m., and then proceed to the construction site.
 
The last time a residence hall was built on campus was 1970 (Andrews Complex).
 
The total cost of this project, including design, is $23 million. Of this, construction is $17 million. Funding is being shouldered by three parties: the State University Construction Fund is providing $4.9 million and the rest is coming from the SUNY Fredonia Faculty Student Association and from the SUNY Fredonia Residence Halls, which are self-supporting. Lakeshore Savings is the lending institution for the FSA financing.
 

Description of the Project:

 
Plans call for erecting a four-story addition to Cranston Dining Center, which is a two-story structure built in 1961. The new residence hall annex will house 129 premium, air-conditioned rooms with baths for every two units. The original structure will be remodeled and renovated to encompass an additional campus food court, full dining hall, kitchen, bookstore, bookstore cafe, and retail space in a mall-like setting.
 
Located on a populous thoroughfare at the center of Fredonia's 249-acres, the new facility will meet the demands of expanding enrollment and the campus's growing business as a center for residential conferences in the summer.
 
LeCesse Construction is the builder for the project. Based in West Henrietta, N.Y. (Rochester suburb), LeCesse is one of 50 contractors which did business on the SUNY Fredonia campus this past year. A total of 46 of the contractors were from Western New York. Kideney Architects of Buffalo designed the Cranston Hall expansion project.