"Wow" is a word Franklin & Marshall College president John Fry expects to hear a lot when students return to F&M next month.

Many of them will be moving into a new $35 million apartment complex, taking science classes and labs in a new $50 million classroom building and playing soccer, lacrosse and Frisbee on new $2.8 million athletic fields.

When students left F&M last spring, these projects were just getting started or still on the drawing board.

When they return to campus the week of Aug. 20, all the projects will be completed, Fry said — along with renovations to the Green Room Theatre and an expanded parking lot near the football field.

"I guess what I feel most proud of is this college's ability to execute very large projects simultaneously in the time frame we said we'd do them and within the budget," Fry said.

"Students leave in May and they come back in September, and it's 'Wow!' "

The Life Sciences and Philosophy Building is closest to completion of the three major projects, Fry said.

Faculty members will begin moving into the new facility, located on the former site of F&M's tennis courts, Aug. 1, he said.

In addition to academic offices for the philosophy, psychology and biology departments, the building houses classrooms, laboratories, a 125-seat auditorium and a greenhouse.

Across Harrisburg Avenue from the main campus, the $35 million College Row student housing and commercial project also is nearing completion.

Fry said all apartments in the 115-unit, five- and six-story structure, located east of F&M's Alumni Sports & Fitness Complex, will be ready for students when they begin arriving next month.

Built by Philadelphia-based Campus Housing, the complex also includes street-level retail space and a separate retail building east of the apartments.

About 400 F&M juniors and seniors — many of whom previously lived off campus — will move into the apartments, most of which will house four students each, Fry said.

College Row is part of a plan to have all F&M students living on campus by the 2008-09 school year.

Two businesses plan to move into the ground-floor retail space: Fillings, a Lancaster-based clothing retailer, and Delaware-based Iron Hill Brewery, which plans to open a $2.2 million restaurant and pub.

The college is negotiating with several other companies interested in the remaining space, Fry said, and officials hope to attract a food market to the 16,000-square-foot freestanding building.

The first businesses should open by winter, he said.

On the west side of the sports complex, workers Friday were rolling out artificial turf for new athletic fields on the site of the former Kimmel Iron & Metal Co. scrap yard.

The new fields will be used for practices and games by the men's and women's soccer and lacrosse teams and the women's field hockey team, Fry said.

Lighting has been installed, and the college plans to add stands to accommodate up to 1,000 spectators by the start of school. Fry said the field also could be used after hours for intramurals and informal student activities.

Plans also call for a pavilion with a press box, athletic rooms and bathrooms to be installed by spring.

On the other side of campus, along College Avenue, renovations are under way on the Green Room Theatre, which will get about $300,000 in upgrades. The college also plans to expand a small parking lot along College Avenue, next to Mayser Gymnasium and the football field, within the next month.

In addition, F&M is involved in a massive project to clear away buildings and debris from the former Armstrong World Industries floor plant, where the college plans to build additional athletic fields.

F&M is involved with $100 million worth of construction and renovation projects, Fry said. "It's very heartening to see a college of our size do $100 million worth of projects and do them right and on time," Fry said.

"It's good for the morale of the place and good for the momentum of the place."

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com