 Additional development has been ongoing on the campus of Kent State University and the largely residential neighborhood located between downtown Kent and the western edge of campus . The university began buying properties in that neighborhood in 2007 and by December 2012 had acquired 43 . Construction of the University Esplanade extension , designed to link campus with downtown , started in August 2012 after several of the buildings in the area , most of which had been rental homes , were demolished or moved . The Esplanade extension continued a segment of the Portage Hike and Bike Trail that extends to Dix Stadium and was completed in October 2013 . Kent State is constructing a new $ 48 million , 107 @,@ 000 square feet ( 9 @,@ 900 m2 ) facility for the College of Architecture and Environmental Design along the Esplanade extension and also relocated the former home of May Prentice , the first female faculty member at Kent State , to the extension as the home for the Wick Poetry Center . Construction on the architecture building started in October 2014 and is scheduled to be completed in 2016 . In total , there are plans totaling approximately $ 150 million for several other facilities and upgrades across campus , including a new building for the College of Applied Engineering , Sustainability and Technology and a renovation and reorganization of the facilities for the School of Art . The city and county have also seen developments in the same area . A new county municipal courthouse on East Main Street was completed in April 2014 , and in 2015 , Kent City Council approved the sale of the city hall complex to a private developer for construction of a five @-@ story apartment building on the site , scheduled to open in August 2016 . 
