Fletcher's Ginn Library and Mugar Hall will undergo large-scale renovations this summer, with the intended results of easier access to the Ginn Library and better group study space.
"We haven't done a whole lot with facilities in the past 10 to 15 years," Jay Herlihy, Director of Administration and Finance at the Fletcher School, said.
Plans are set to relocate the Ginn Library entrance, circulation, and reference desks. "The new library entrance will be moved from the basement of Cabot to Mugar Hall at a courtyard that will be on the sidewalk that runs parallel to Professors Row," Ken Varnum, the Associate Librarian at Ginn Library, said.
Above the courtyard entrance, at the second level of Mugar Hall, a horseshoe-shaped classroom will be built with capacity for 50 to 60 students.
These changes to the structure of Mugar Hall flooring will affect how members of the Tufts and Fletcher community can access the building.
"This conversion, along with a new security system, allows elevator access from the first to seventh floors," Herlihy said. Currently, the elevator only has access from the second to seventh floors. According to Herlihy, this change is meant to "set up the community for better access [in the Fletcher school]."
These changes are a part of a continual master plan - last year, renovation occurred on the fourth, sixth, and seventh floors of Cabot, as well as a facelift in the Hall of Flags and reception area.
The current renovations are expected to be complete by Aug. 15, while those on the exterior will take place throughout the Fall 2005 semester. Herlihy said that "the continuing exterior work in the fall shouldn't affect students and their studying."
The Mugar Computer Lab entrance has also been re-routed, so that the only entrance is through the back entrance by the No Name Caf?©. The lab itself will be completely closed this summer.
"It was an annoyance getting into the computer lab after 7:00 p.m., once the Caf?© was closed," second-year Fletcher student Rali Gueorguieva said.
According to Ken Varnum, the Associate Librarian at Ginn, "the computer lab itself will not be touched, only the hallway outside of it will be redone.... It's for that reason that the computer lab will be closed this summer."
Work that will be done inside the computer lab this summer will include redecoration and restoration of the floors and ceilings.
Other interior renovations will include a reconfiguration of library office space, remodeling in the reading rooms, and a construction of compact shelving.
Herlihy also said that other exterior reconstructions will include "completely redoing the skin of Cabot," including the replacement of every window.
