Jeff Boshart, an art professor, spent eight years in an office where he sat next to a boiler, had no phone or computer hookups.

To Boshart, just having an office is a luxury, but he said new space in Art Park West has many pluses for him and his students.

When Boshart was moved to Building 12, a small house next to the Doudna Fine Arts Building, administrators told him it was temporary, and he would only have to teach his dimensional and sculpture art classes there for three years. Eight years later, he has been moved from Building 12 to another temporary location in the Art Park West.

Though it is another temporary teaching space, he would rather not think about another move. He said he and his students are pleased with the new and improved work area.

Boshart currently teaches 3-D art and sculpture, two classes that have few special needs compared to other art classes that require special equipment and environments.

Art classes were moved to the new building during the renovation and construction of the Doudna Fine Art Center; set for completion in 2005. Some students and faculty experienced delays in class work, losing almost three weeks of class time when the Art Park West building was not finished by the start of the semester.

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However, Boshart said his classes “have hardly been effected from day one” other than not being able to wash their hands because there was no running water. His new classroom has more open space and flexibility than his classroom in Building 12.

“Once we got past that original struggle to get up and teaching … we recognized that we had a better space,” he said.

Boshart no longer has to deal with 7-feet tall ceilings, exposed lighting and work areas and office space where it was difficult for two people to even turn around.

The new classroom is between 20 and 40 percent larger than his old room with more flexible space.

“I can’t think of any minuses of this room,” he said.

Boshart is the only person to teach in the classroom, when previously he shared his room with two or three other teachers who all taught different subjects. Classroom often became cluttered with students’ work and they ran the risk of having projects toyed with by other classes.

Now, there is shelf for every students and room for larger creations, he said.

“In the past there was very limited space for students,” he said.

“There would be projects all over the floor … things would get kind of crazy,” he said.

Boshart will share his classroom with another teacher next semester, but the room will only facility 3-D students, he said.

While his 3-D classes are moving along smoothly, sculpture classes are meeting some delays because more equipment is involved.

“The sculpture room is taking shape more slowly,” Boshart said.

He said most of the work the landlord and the university are responsible for has been completed, but he has a number of little projects he needs to finish himself. Between teaching, advising and outside obligations, he has not found the time to complete the projects.

Construction was ongoing at the start of the semester, and he said the delays prevented him from concentrating on unpacking and setting up his own space.

“I can tell how well I am doing by how many tubs I see,” he said.

Boshart now has only five to eight tubs filled with miscellaneous items to unpack, an improvement from weeks ago when the tubs spread across the floor stacked on top of one another.

Some of the sculpture equipment was damaged during the move, but administrators replaced the equipment in a timely manner and little class time was lost. The sculpture building also relieved a plasma cutter/compressor earlier this week and Boshart hopes it will hooked up by this Friday.

The machine has not hindered class since it is a new addition to the class, but now that it has arrived can only enhance students’ learning, he said.

“This is an improvement to what we had for so many years,” he said. “It’s 1000 percent better than where I was before.”

Boshart is happy right now, but he does have concerns for the near future.

As winter approaches, he said he wonders where students are going to store coats, whether the temperature of the building will be warm enough and whether people will slip on the tile floors.