Biola’s Board of Trustees convened at the end of last month near San Diego for their annual off-campus retreat, which included “two-plus days of reflection, big picture planning and strengthening relationships,” according to a statement from president Barry Corey.

To close the trip, the board held a business meeting during which they approved several decisions related to Biola’s immediate future, including two major upcoming building projects: the construction of a new five-level parking structure by May 2014, and the construction of a new residence hall by August 2015.

Parking structure construction to possibly begin this year

Now that the board has approved both projects, construction of the new parking structure could begin as early as May of this year, according to vice president of University Services Greg Balsano.

“It will be similar to the parking structure [next to the soccer field],” he said. “It will be very close to the same size.”

Biola will gain a net total of 707 parking places from the completed project, he said. Balsano predicted that students will feel the loss of the 288 spaces currently in Lot K — between Alpha Hall and the Bluff apartments — while the new structure is being built in its place.

“It will basically disrupt parking in [Lot K] for the fall semester and probably be done early in the spring semester,” he said.

New residence hall to replace Lot J

The new residence hall, tentatively called North Hall, will replace Lot J, which sits between the two arms of Sigma Hall. It will be four stories tall and contain beds for 338 students, according to Balsano. Hope Hall, by comparison, contains 426 beds, and Horton Hall contains 409.

“Construction [for North Hall] will begin in May of 2014 and be completed, in an ideal world, by July of 2015,” Balsano said.

He confirmed that students would lose parking spaces to this project as well, but that they should be less affected by this loss since the new parking structure will already be built.

“No matter when we did it, [parking] would be an issue … but once [the new structure] is built there’s going to be parking galore there,” Balsano said. “No one will ever have to walk very far for a parking space, because all of the residence halls will have gobs of parking.”

New chillers projected for 2015

Although the building projects have been approved by the city of La Mirada, and now by the Board of Trustees, the projects cannot commence until Los Angeles County grants Biola the necessary building permits. Balsano did not name an expected timeframe for the permitting process, but suggested that it should happen in time to start construction on schedule.

In conjunction with the new residence hall, Biola will install two 900-ton chillers in the central power plant, which supplies for about 85 percent of Biola’s heating and cooling needs, according to Balsano. The completion of the chillers is also projected for August 2015.

Balsano described the chillers as giant freezers that produce water cold enough to pump around campus for use in air conditioning units.

“We needed more chilling capacity [for the new buildings], so we’re just going to go ahead and do a big chilling upgrade,” Balsano said.

Funding to come from tax-exempt bonds

The Board of Trustees also approved funding for these projects, which will come from tax-exempt bonds, according to Corey’s statement.

“The cost of everything [the structure, hall and chillers] will be up to $36 million,” Balsano said.

Other actions performed by the Board of Trustees included ratifying the faculty appointment of Chris Mitchell, currently of Wheaton College, as a professor in Biola’s Torrey Honors Institute and approving the awarding of honorary doctorate degrees to Rick and Kay Warren at commencement in May. The board also heard updates on relevant subjects such as the Health and Human Services litigation, the ongoing discussion about sexual identity and same-sex attraction at Biola, and the new Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts.