Construction and fundraising for several major university projects, including a performing arts center, new science and business buildings, and a 4,500-seat athletic field, will be in high gear throughout the fall as part of the university’s 10-year campus development plan.

The Royden B. Davis, S.J., Performing Arts Center is scheduled to open in November, and the Multi-Sport Facility’s new turf field is nearly complete. Only the incoming Class of 2009, however, will see the university’s entire mid-campus construction effort completed.

Returning students will probably first notice the near-completion of the Davis Center.

“We are indeed in the homestretch,” Maya Roth, director of Georgetown’s theater program, said.

The 39,600-square-foot facility, funded entirely by donations, will feature two large theaters and several classrooms, performance areas and administrative offices. The first performance, “Our Country’s Good,” is set to take place in the center in mid-November.

Roth said the costume shop and design studio classroom will be completed by the time classes start. These sections and the scene shop will be outfitted immediately so that costumes and scene-construction materials can be brought in.

“Students’ class labs will begin there at the top of the semester, as we are creating these workshop environments,” Roth said.

Roth also said the center’s faculty offices and most classrooms will be ready for move-in by the second week of classes. The building’s two theatres, the Gonda and the Devine, are slated to be completed by early October.

“We need to shakedown the spaces: test the special equipment, do all safety checks, install soft materials and prepare them for production work,” Roth said.

Tours of the center are scheduled for several times this fall, including Parents’ Weekend, Homecoming Weekend, and December 9, the day the building will be dedicated in the presence of major donors.

The facility’s final cost has been estimated at $30.8 million, Vice President for Facilities and Housing Karen Frank said in a March interview.

Construction is also proceeding on a major new athletic building, the Multi-Sport Facility. On the site of Harbin Field, the first phase of the facility – a new synthetic playing surface – is nearly finished.

“All but the finishing touches are complete,” university spokeswoman Julie Bataille said.

She added that the installation of the south fence and some landscaping are underway. Stands will be installed before the field’s completion and the first home football game on September 17.

The field is expected to seat 4,500 spectators, and it will be able to be used for football, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s soccer and field hockey games.

The field complies with NCAA requirements to allow for possible hosting of NCAA tournament play. It could also be used for academic convocations, graduation or concerts.

Georgetown’s Board of Directors approved nearly $1.4 million to design the new playing surface.

“The second phase will be to develop an enhanced press box and scoreboard, [and] the third phase will address our need for improved locker room facilities,” university spokeswoman Laura Cavender said in an interview last fall.

“Future phases of the project are dependent on fundraising, board approval, and city zoning approvals and building permits,” Bataille said.

Other construction projects are still in the planning, fundraising and design stages. In an interview in April, McDonough School of Business Interim Dean Reena Aggarwal said she expects a planned new MSB Center “to create a much more enriching intellectual environment” for the business school. The building will provide a common room for individual and group study and will facilitate easier interaction with faculty.

Officials met their initial fundraising goal of $62 million last September. Cavender had said in an interview last September that the university would have to raise an additional $20.5 million by this September in order for construction to begin.

Bataille said the fundraising is proceeding on target. She said that over $70 million has been raised so far.

“The next step is for the university’s Board of Directors to approve the building design plans and then the university must secure city zoning approvals. Pending that, we can begin excavation and construction,” Bataille said.

Officials are hoping to hold a groundbreaking ceremony in November and open the new MSB building in 2008, she added.

In March, University President John J. DeGioia outlined preliminary plans for a new science building. He estimated that costs of the building would exceed $100 million, and said that once the necessary funds are raised, planning would begin for a facility on the site of the former baseball field and across from the site of the future home of the McDonough School of Business.

Bataille said faculty, the Provost’s office and deans’ offices are still in the planning stages of the science building’s development. Fundraising and design plans will follow this initial planning stage.

“A new science center is the highest main campus infrastructure project and nothing is being more thought about than this,” Bataille said. “It is a complex project that represents an urgent need.”

University officials have also been pursuing the construction of a new boathouse on the Potomac waterfront, west of the Key Bridge and next to the Washington Canoe Club. The $14 million project would provide more space to house Georgetown’s approximately 180-member crew team, which currently shares space with rowers from George Washington University and several area high schools at the nearby Thompson’s Boat Center.

Progress on the boathouse has halted, pending a report by the National Park Service on the environmental impact of the new construction.

“NPS is due to release the environmental assessment in mid- to late-September,” University Architect Alan Brangman said. “Once that happens we will have a public hearing to receive comments, and then NPS will issue a decision on a desired alternative.”

The fight for a Georgetown boathouse is in its 23rd year, and the proposed location was first approved in 1987.