University of Miami plans major campus

University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus is on track to complete a large residential project in 2026 and continues to work on more capital improvement projects.

Centennial Village is to be a first-year experience for students, said Jessica Brumley, vice president of facilities, operations, and planning. “The majority of our freshman students would live in the Centennial Village together and really get that first-year experience as a community within the residential colleges under Centennial Village.”

As previously reported by Miami Today, Phase 1 of the project began in 2022 and opened its doors to students Aug. 12.

“Phase 2,” said Ms. Brumley, “we are finished with the structure itself. The project topped out earlier this year, and so now we’re beginning the interior coordination piece, getting ready to really ramp up with mechanical, electrical and plumbing, and we anticipate having windows in and air conditioning on by the end of summer, and we are still on track to finish the overall project the following summer, July of 2026.”

Construction would finish in July 2026 in order for students to move in August 2026.

When the second phase is completed, she said, “we’ll have a little over 1,100 beds finished, and then in the first phase, we had a little over 850 beds. In total, we’ll be just shy of 2,000 beds for the overall development.”

The transition that freshmen face as first-time college students living on their own is an experience they can share with others.

The completion of the Centennial Village, said Ms. Brumley, allows the freshmen population to “cohabitate and kind of go through that experience of the first-time living away from home together, and it gives Student Affairs the opportunity to really start to engage our freshmen as part of our Canes community and help them understand what it means to be living away and living on campus for the first time.”

The Theater Arts facility, she said, was completed at the end of last year and is now operating. “The Theater Arts department underneath the College of Arts and Sciences is actively using that space.” Within the structure are a black box performance theater as well as practice rooms, administrative rooms and classroom spaces.

Additionally, Ms. Brumley said, the construction at the Frost Institute building of the interior floors is completed as well.

As previously reported by Miami Today last August, the university decided to delay construction of a football operations center and instead first look into expanding the indoor practice field and adding a weight room there.

Ms. Brumley said progress has been made.

“Actually, we … just finished construction documents and submitted for permit on the actual building expansion itself to convert the existing field to a 100-yard indoor practice field, which is a full size football field,” she said. “Additionally, they are adding a strength training area to the building, which will be an expansion to the existing facility.

“We are actually getting ready to do some of the enabling work,” she added, “which is some work that has to happen prior to starting the actual expansion itself, and we’re starting in the middle of next month.”

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