Popular uphill dormitory West Hall is slated to receive an exterior facelift, and an unused photography development lab will be removed from its basement in time for the building's new residents in the fall 2005 semester.
The latest renovations are part of the administration's plan to improve the physical appearance of the campus, as well as the living conditions of the students.
Facilities' Deferred Maintenance Program Manager Rudi Pizzi is the project manager of the construction. Pizzi said that the dorm's old age made it a primary candidate for external changes.
"West Hall is very old. It goes back to the 1800s," Pizzi said.
Pizzi, who was also responsible for planning the restoration of both Paige and Miner Halls during the fall 2004 semester, said that the dorm is in need of renovations in order for the University to preserve the building, instead of possibly destroying it later on.
The University has hired Payton Construction to renovate the dorm. Past jobs at the University performed by the firm include an addition to the Eliot-Pearson building.
Christopher Baryluck, a member of the Payton Construction team, has welcomed the assignment and said that his team is ready to "spruce the building up."
The renovations will include replacing the bricks on the exterior, roofing work, and work around the windows. The team will also redo some of the parking and install new lighting fixtures in the rear of the dorm.
The photo lab in the basement of West is slated to be removed. There are no plans to replace the lab, which has been used most recently by the Daily.
Since it is illegal for workers to carry any sort of chemicals from one building to another without a license, an outside company that manages the University's waste will do the moving, said the University's Industrial Hygeine Technician Peter Nowak.
Current West Hall resident and sophomore Rachel Leven said that renovations to the exterior are unnecessary. "It's an old building, but I like the way it looks," she said.
While Leven enjoys the aesthetics of the gothic-style building, she said there are problems regarding the roof. "I'm glad they're fixing the roofing. I live on the fourth floor and there are squirrels in the roof that keep us up at night," Leven said.
Nevertheless, Leven is more concerned with the interior of the building and believes that the University should be as well. "It needs a lot of work," she said, citing a recent e-mail warning residents of sagging floors. "I think they should gut the whole thing and start over."
According to a talk given by University President Larry Bacow in the dorm last semester, the exterior renovations are one of the many things the University's administration would like to do with the $116 million dollars raised last year.
This money is currently part of the University's endowment.
"The bulk of the money [raised] is going towards the students and the faculty," Bacow said. As far as supporting the student body, Bacow hopes to "make dorms more livable."
As part of this plan, Bacow said the administration also intends to eventually renovate the entire interior of West. He said, however, that the University "can't do that in three months."
Restoring the interior is contingent upon providing adequate housing for students. "We need more dorms so that we can shut one dorm down for 15 months and fix it," Bacow said.
Bacow said, however, that is not likely to occur soon, even with construction of the Sophia Gordon Hall slated to begin Sept. 2006.
West, built in 1871, is as renowned for its old age as it is for being the starting point of many Naked Quad Run festivities.
As a result of its social reputation as well as its proximity to many academic buildings, West is regarded as one of the more popular dormitories. Its rooms are generally filled within the early stages of the housing lottery process.
