More changes to Quad unveiled

Part of the plan calls for the creation of suites to attract upperclassmen. University officials unveiled the second phase of the $75 million Quadrangle renovation project on Friday, which detailed plans to merge the Quad's four existing college houses into three, add new facilities and utility systems and restore parts of the building's architecture. When the four-year project is completed in 2002, each of the three houses in the Quad will offer fully renovated rooms, computing and research facilities and individual house mail rooms, as well as suites of rooms in each house to entice upperclassmen to stay in the Quad. All rooms in will have air conditioning by the fall of 2002. Officials hope that the redesign will dramatically alter the atmosphere within the Quad. "If you look at the Quad today, it's an extraordinarily barren place," Director of College Houses and Academic Services David Brownlee said. Construction in the Quad began last summer with work concentrating on historic restoration and improvement of the building's infrastructure for heat, water and electricity. The construction is part of the $300 million dorm-dining renovation project, scheduled to last 10 years. Most work this summer will focus on one of the three College houses -- temporarily named A, B and C. College House B -- which consists of parts of Community and Spruce college houses -- will be completely updated this summer, with new bathrooms, updated lighting and new air conditioning and heating systems. This summer's construction will cost about $10 million, according to Associate Vice President for Campus Services Larry Moneta. The same renovations will be made to College House C -- parts of Spruce, Community and Ware college houses -- in the summer of 2001 and to College House A -- Goldberg College House and the rest of Ware -- in the summer of 2002. The house names are not permanent. Instead, the University is currently seeking donors to name the individual houses, Provost Robert Barchi said. The three houses will each have their own computer lab, music practice facilities, lounge, seminar and meeting space, library and exercise rooms. Plans also call for each house to have a unique entrance and "nucleus" containing mailboxes, lounges, a lobby and office space, housing officials explained. By creating three separate mail locations, officials hope to avoid the current mix-ups and confusion that occur with mail in the Quad. "I'm most excited about the overall creation of a set of supportive facilities for the college houses," Brownlee said. Some mostly external improvements will also be made to other areas of the Quad this summer. Construction may begin as early as April, officials said. Second-phase plans also call for the addition of about nine suites to each of the houses. "I think [the suites] are one of the most exciting changes in the way student rooms will work," Brownlee said. "Fundamentally, we're taking a group of present rooms gathered around a corridor and declaring it to be a suite -- including a bathroom, installing a kitchen area in one of the rooms and allowing students the freedom to move furniture behind the door," he said. Suites and specially-equipped singles will ultimately account for approximately 25 percent of the Quad housing -- a move designed to attract more upperclassmen to the traditionally freshman dorm, Director of Housing and Conference Services Doug Berger said. Despite the large increases in public space, the current plans will only call for the loss of 19 or 20 bed spaces, Berger said. "The key thing is to identify places where the buildings are capable of being adapted, like basements and other underused [areas]," Brownlee said. "Where we will make the most change [is] making public space where there is no public space." By the end of the project, a new entrance onto Hamilton Walk will be open, providing each college house with its own entrance. Filling out the renovations, the courtyards of the Quad will be landscaped in 2002. Plants from habits of the inner coastal plain-- willow oaks, magnolias, ferns and flowering perennials chosen to provide color that varies by season-- will be used in the design of the Quad's courtyards. An open forum on the Quad renovations will be held on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in McClelland Hall.