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TBS opening new student quarters in Aug.

The first of eight new student quarters for the Corps’ newly commissioned officers is slated for completion this August as the next phase of construction at The Basic School at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., is expected to ramp into full gear.

The Corps awarded a $69 million contract May 1 to Maryland-based Harkins Builders for two additional student quarters and a new headquarters academic construction facility.

The training building will include four 300-seat lecture halls, six classrooms, a large training room and computer labs.

“We have three classrooms now and we shoehorn 300 in there,” said Maj. Craig Petersen, TBS logistics officer.

There are seven basic officer classes of 300 each and an eighth warrant officer class of 300 that go through The Basic School, where newly commissioned officers spend six months before going to their military occupational specialty schools, each year.

Although Marine officials expect those numbers to level off now that the Corps has reached its anticipated end strength of 202,000, they say the change won’t be significant and the nearly 60-year-old building was not designed to fit that capacity.

The new building allows teachers to roam around the room more freely and to interact with students.

“When you train 300 people, it’s difficult to keep their attention. The new multimedia computer system will provide more efficient instruction, and we believe it will enhance better student learning,” TBS spokesman Maj. Jeff Landis said.

Landis said officials are in the process of designing a new green concept that will include roof-mounted solar photovoltaic panels to heat the water in the bathrooms. It is too early to say how much the panels will cost or how much money the Corps can save in the long run by using the solar heat, he said.

Construction on two additional 128-unit, student-officer housing structures is expected to begin in August, just as students get ready to move into a slightly smaller, but similar, building that’s under construction.

The brick housing will have blast-resistant windows and a metal roof.

“We have put thousands of officers through there since [1958, when the current housing was built] and, quite frankly, [the housing is] in dire need of replacing,” Landis said.

The project is broken into phases so training will not be disrupted. It also allows for the Corps to tear down the old buildings as new ones come online, Landis said.

The project, which eventually will include a new dining facility, artillery instruction battery, corporal leadership facility and auditorium, was expected to cost $282 million. An updated figure was not available, but officials acknowledged the final number is likely to look much different once the downturn in the economy and inflation are taken into consideration.