The McNally campus, which has been undergoing repairs over the past few weeks, will have to deal with the same stop-gap repairs for the next few years. Biola has occupied the former middle school since acquiring it in 1991 from the city of La Mirada. | Emily Arnold/THE CHIMES

McNally campus has seen significant problems with its water services in the past two months, but plans have been underway for over a decade to tear down the existing classrooms and construct three new buildings for the sciences, arts and cinema to better accommodate and equip students.

The property was a junior high school for some time and became a part of Biola University in 1991. However, the facilities on that land are half a century old and becoming difficult to maintain.

Long term plans made

This past month, water service to the Grove and McNally was shut down because of a crack in the main pipe. Although repairs were made and the water was turned back on, long-term repairs, including the replacement of the entire water main pipe, are planned for inter-term or the summer. Another incident occurred on Aug. 31, when a dime-sized hole was found in one of the pipes connected to the main pipe.

“We’re looking at different areas on the campus to expand and to build new buildings, and McNally is an area that has been identified as somewhere where it would make sense to put a couple of different buildings,” said Michael Pierce, vice president of business and financial affairs. “Science is one of the areas that has been discussed; there’s also been discussion that there would be a cinema or arts-related facility at McNally.”

Ken Bascom, senior director of facilities planning and construction, said that the newly revamped Production Center will remain. He added that in the original plan submitted to the city, not all of the buildings in McNally were scheduled to be removed. However, in a new plan, all of the classrooms will be removed in order to make room for the new buildings, including a four-story science building.

Construction of all new buildings

Both Pierce and Bascom maintained that the plans were very preliminary and would not take place for several years. Bascom said three to five years would be an optimistic time frame for the construction to start. He added that the university has been long-planning McNally’s renovation, but it will be a while before it comes to fruition. Even though it will take a lot of time and money, Biola will be able to accept more students onto the campus.

“Juniors [at Biola] won’t be around to see any changes, but the freshmen might,” Bascom said. “Biola has reached its student limit of 5,000 … when I attended Biola, there were 1,300 [undergrad] students and 200 in the graduate program.”

Since the plan calls for all new buildings and facilities, the cost will be high. There is no definite budget yet, but the final cost will be in the millions. Luckily, Biola is no stranger to fundraising. Pierce explained how the fundraising will probably happen for McNally.

Fundraising for expansion

“The way these things are typically working is that the advancement office is responsible for fundraising at the university and there are private donors who really believe in what it is that Biola is doing, and are willing to contribute to our future success,” Pierce said. “Then of course there are alumni who graduated and that we would go out and ask for funds, and there’s even corporations who would donate.”

Bascom and Pierce noted that the building process would be done in stages, in order to not cause major displacement while the classrooms are taken out, although getting to this point will take a while. Bascom mentioned that these plans would first have to be authorized by the president and school officials, and then sent to the city to be approved. Then they would be sent back to the university, and contractors and construction crews would have to be lined up.

Despite all of this, maintaining a positive attitude and remembering to thank God are crucial factors in the McNally process.

“It’s just a really exciting time to be part of Biola,” Pierce said. “God’s really blessed this place and we’re trying to be true to his direction, so we really appreciate the prayers from the students as we look at what to do with those resources. We’re just really following God’s wisdom and God’s path. It would be great if the student community were to partner with us just in prayer on making those things come to fruition.”