Schar Center update: Elon's new convocation center takes shape

As summer approaches, construction crews have made major progress on the Schar Center exterior, as well as the 5,100-seat arena. The exterior of the building is expected to be completed by the end of summer.

The Schar Center will serve as a venue for convocations, speakers and other major campus events. It will also be the new home court for Elon’s basketball and volleyball teams, with triple the space of Alumni Memorial Gymnasium, and include a practice facility with two full courts, hospitality room, club-level seating and high-definition video boards. The facility is cheduled to open in 2018.

Alumni, parents and friends can follow the Schar Center progress on a new website — www.elon.edu/scharcenter — which includes the latest photos and news of the facility, as well as renderings, a live construction cam and photos from past project milestones.

Visitors to the website can take a look inside and outside the Schar Center with fly-through videos. In addition, an interactive construction cam allows viewers to scroll back through construction photos and provides a time-lapse feature so viewers can watch the center take shape.

The facility is named for Elon parents Dwight and Martha Schar, of Palm Beach, Fla., who are among Elon’s most generous donors and whose $13 million in gifts to the university provided lead funding for the convocation center and the expanded School of Communications.