Dental site gets set for construction

The $23 million project still awaits approval from the University's Trustees. Preliminary preparations began this week for construction of a new $23 million facility for the School of Dental Medicine, although the proposal still awaits approval from the University Board of Trustees, University officials said. The 55,000-square-foot Robert Schattner Center, which will house clinical-care facilities, classrooms and conference rooms, will rise from a former parking lot at 40th and Locust streets. It will connect the two current dental buildings, the main Evans Building and the Levy Oral Health Center. Vice President for Facilities Management Omar Blaik said the University has begun to relocate utilities to the site and to ready it for construction. Preparations have also included breaking ground, digging and putting a fence around the site. Blaik added that he expects the Trustees to approve the proposal by the end of the month. The Trustees approved a $23 million allocation for the new facility at their July meeting. Funding for the new facility became available thanks in part to a $4 million donation made by Robert Schattner, a 1948 Dental School alumnus known for inventing Chloraseptic mouthwash. The donation Schattner made in March was the largest in Dental School history. While plans for the building had been in the works for a long time, the donation ultimately helped make it possible, officials said. The Schattner Center will fill a significant need for the currently overcrowded school by creating increased space to move some functions out of Levy and Evans and allow for smaller classes. In addition to Schattner's donation, the school also received a grant of $4 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- adding to the school's annual budget of $38 million -- which will help fund the project. University Secretary Rosemary McManus confirmed yesterday that the Trustees may approve the proposal during their next meetings, on October 29 and 30. "[The proposal] has been through a variety of administrative approval processes and the administration hopes to present it to the Trustees at the end of the month," McManus said.