FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) -- The main entrance to Old Main at the University of Arkansas has been closed for the summer as construction gets underway to restore parts of the exterior.
"We are restoring the portico," said Todd Furgason, senior campus planner for the university. "It includes replacing the columns, replacing the plints, and the steps and restoring the front door and installing a new lantern."
Renovations on the 141-year-old building have been in the works for about two years, according to Furgason, who said the college intends to bring back a familiar image.
"I think it'll look like everyone remembers it looking, but when you actually looked at it, it was a little dingy and dirty," said Furgason. "I think when people see it, it'll be like the best version of itself."
SCM Architects, a locally based company was hired to draft the new design.
Paul Heck, an architect with the company, and a class of 1990 graduate of the University of Arkansas, said they were faced with quite a task.
"We had to go back and look through old yearbooks, go through the archives in the library, just trying to find any information that gave us," said Heck. "That information from a long time ago."
Graduate student Shelby Urban said she liked the idea of restoring the historic building, but hoped the image would remain the same.
"I hope that it will be nicer," said Urban. "Updated better so it'll last longer for us, but still looks like the same Old Main."
While the plans for Old Main are set in stone, work by university planners will eventually shift to updating older parts of the Senior Walk, which have endured damaged throughout the years.
"To really keep [The Senior Walk] tradition alive," said Furgason. "Where it started, we have to do something and that something is going to replace the original concrete, which is falling apart with granite, which if done right should last forever."
The replacement would include classes in the late 1800s up until about the 1920s, but plans are still in the funding stage, according to Furgason.
Construction on the Old Main entrance is expected to be completed by the start of the Fall 2016 semester, Heck said.