Campus Growth

Construction completed on Longfellow Boulevard project

The Longfellow Boulevard renovation projected arrived at completion in April 2010. Once an unassuming two-lane road that ran adjacent to the Southeastern campus, the 1/4 mile stretch of renovated road is now one of the university's most recognizable and vibrant architectural elements. The completed project includes:

• the addition of two southbound turning lanes, one turning into the main entrance of the university, and the other to turn onto North Crystal Lake Drive
• Mediterranean-style university gateway entry signs at the corners of Longfellow Boulevard and North Crystal Lake Drive
• decorative street lighting, a pedestrian crosswalk, and undergroudn utilities
• a new 12-foot-wide landscaped median adorned with Queen Palm trees
• improvements to 3,000+ linear feet of an underground storm-water system that will properly treat and transport storm water to Little Lake Bonny on the road's west side

Southeastern’s College of Business and Legal Studies and College of Education has a new home

In September 2008, Southeastern dedicated the new Business and Education building. The renovated, two-story facility includes about 32,000 square feet of classroom, administrative, and faculty office space for the College of Business and Legal Studies and the College of Education.

This $5.5 million renovated building includes the following:

• 16 classrooms, including one 70-seat classroom and three 50-seat classrooms
• a 150-seat lecture hall
• three computer labs
• 24 faculty offices
• two administrative office suites
• a conference room

The renovation also included an addition to the old building: an elevator. In addition to remodeling the interior of the building, Southeastern overhauled the exterior of the structure to match the Mediterranean-styled architecture of the rest of campus.

New campus restaurant, Tuscana Ristorante, opened in August 2007

Southeastern's new dining facility, Tuscana Ristorante, opened in August 2007. Not only does it top the old dining hall by 10,000 square feet and seat 350 more diners, it offers students, staff, and visitors a different dining experience.

While the serving stations in the old facility —with the exception of the salad bar—were lined up along walls, the serving stations in Tuscana Ristorante are islands spread throughout the restaurant. This setup facilitates a “marché” style of food service.

Food stations at the new restaurant include a meat-carving station, a salad bar, a deli bar, a station for deluxe entrees, a grill for hamburgers and other quick American fare, and a pizza/pasta station—where brick-oven pizza is made. The restaurant also has a breakfast station, a dessert station, and two beverage stations.

The marché-style setup is just one feature of the new, 25,000-square-foot, $7 million dining facility that Southeastern built to keep up with student growth at the university. The new restaurant, which sits between Bethany and Aventura residence halls, seats 750 people and replaces the old, 400-seat dining hall. Another 70 people can dine on the patio of the new restaurant.

In addition to having more space for general dining, the new facility contains 200 seats of banquet space, which the public can rent for community and private events. The banquet space can be converted into three rooms that serve 80, 170, or 200 people. The new building also features a presidential dining room that seats 30 people.

The one-story, steel and concrete block-construction facility has a Mediterranean design that meshes with the existing buildings on campus. Tuscana includes a ceiling that reaches 20 feet.