Architects from the Treanor Architects Firm met with students, faculty and staff of the Mass Communication Department yesterday as part of their weeklong visit to campus to plan the proposed new resident hall and mass communication building.

“It’s a weeklong intensive design period where we can meet with lots of different people and have the students come in and we’re designing on site and we’re staying up late,” said Nadia Zhiri, principal of Treanor Architects. “By the end of the week we should have presented options on the way things lay out, and then massing of how they look.”

While Zhiri and faculty members of the Mass Communication Department said nothing is final, the current plans call for a two-story building on the east side of the Fain Fine Arts building with room for a 2,200-square-foot news room and 1,200-square-foot TV studio. The plans also include academic space with a new lecture hall and two conference rooms.

Martin Camacho, dean of the Fain College of Fine Arts and associate music professor, attended the meeting. He said he began working with the architects in August and was happy with the progress.

“I’m extremely excited at the possibility of a new wing for fine arts being considered, which I know is a long-overdue project for the department,” Camacho said. “It’s not only about the media on campus, it’s about providing adequate instructional facilities to a program. It reinforces the importance of the program throughout the university.”

Mitzi Lewis, assistant professor of mass communication, said she is excited about the lecture hall because she said classroom layout has a large effect on how students learn.

“From a teaching perspective, the technology and layout of a room affect communication with students,” Lewis said. “It really makes for a different dynamic for sharing and processing information.”

Jim Sernoe, associate professor and chair of mass communication, said he wants the new building to facilitate a synergy between academics and media.

“I’m looking at this not just for student media and not just for academics, but how do we bring it all together. But of all the options investigated in the last five years, this is the most exciting one,” Sernoe said.

Sernoe said he attended previous planning meetings that also included housing representatives and administrators.

“It’s an interesting dynamic, but it’s more proof that we sink or swim together. As an academic department, of course we operate independently of housing and they operate independently of us, but we’re in this together,” Sernoe said.