The Department of Facilities Services will renovate parts of South Hall this summer to provide more rooms that meet the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board (MAAB) accessibility requirements. They will also update the building's furniturelight fixtures, according to Director of Project Administration and University Maintenance Rudi Pizzi.
There will be changes to eleven rooms and two bathrooms to increase handicap-;accessible facilities in South Hall. Construction will begin after commencement ceremonies on May 20 and will end before students move in next fall, Pizzi told the Daily in an email.
"The necessity to renovate residence halls is driven by the schedule to create accessible rooms and the need to renovate bathrooms and common areas," Pizzi said. "[South was] prioritized through Facilities Services evaluations."
Additionally, Facilities plans to update seventeen bathrooms and several common rooms that need new fixtures and paint finishes. Pizzi said his department hopes that conducting the renovations during the summer, when students are not living in South, will elevate the quality of life the building provides for its residents without disrupting on-;campus life.
Each of the renovated areas will feature new furniture, fresh coats of paint and energy-;efficient LED light fixtures, Pizzi said. Facilities will also add new fixtures, such as handle bars in showers, to the spaces that will become handicap accessible.
Facilities, along with the Office of Residential Life and Learning and the School of Arts and Sciences, hired architectural firm Timothy D. Smith & Associates and construction management Commodore Builders to complete the project by the end of the summer, Pizzi said.
The renovation in South is only one of several projects the Department of Facilities has planned for this summer, Pizzi said. The cost of each renovation is included in a budget that will pay for all of the upgrades as a whole.
Over the past few years, the Department of Facilities has renovated multiple residence halls over the summer, including Metcalf, Carmichael, Hill and West Hall, to improve the amenities, Pizzi said. The work in South Hall will be similar to that which took place in each of these other buildings.
"These projects have all been very well received by the student population," Pizzi said. "We expect similar reactions for South Hall."
Student reactions seem to follow Pizzi's prediction.
"While I [don't] have much of a choice in living in South next year, I was pleasantly surprised that they [are] going to improve it," Mason Richins, a freshman, said. "Since South is such a new dorm, I hardly think [the renovations] are necessary, but if I have to live there, why not enjoy it being slightly nicer."
Ptah Osayande, another freshman living in South next year, agreed that it was a strange choice for renovation.
"When I first heard about the renovation, I got pretty excited, but I was also curious as to what they would be doing because it was renovated not too long ago," he said. "I didn't really want to live in South, but my roommate had a much worse lottery number than me and I wasn't going to leave him hanging."
