Wichita State University held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday, June 11, to celebrate construction of the new residence hall.

Farha Construction and Dondlinger & Sons will officially break ground Monday, June 17. Plans are for the building to be complete and ready for students to move in for the fall 2014 semester.

The $65 million residence hall will be in the parking lot south of Cessna Stadium. The hall will be paid for by revenue bonds. Housing revenues will be used over a period of time to repay the bonds.

The lot is no longer available for parking. Some of the handicapped-accessible spaces have been relocated to Alumni Drive.

The loss of about 750 parking spaces will be offset somewhat with the addition of 400 parking spaces along 21st Street east of Corbin Education Center. Those spaces are scheduled to be available in mid- to late-July.

Even with the parking lot going offline, there should be ample parking for students attending summer school at Wichita State.

New and improved

Mostly first-year students and some returning students will reside in the new residence hall. Several room configurations will be available — singles, standard doubles, double rooms with two singles, and quad rooms with four single rooms. Some will have small living room areas.

Each floor will have a laundry room, community kitchen and lounge area.

After completion of the new residence hall, Wheatshocker Apartments and Brennan Halls will no longer be residence halls. Plans are to raze those buildings for future development. Fairmount Towers will be available for returning students only.