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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 ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ’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 ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ parents Dwight and Martha Schar, of Palm Beach, Fla., who are among ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ’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.