With newly installed air conditioning and renovated dorm rooms, residents in the Quadrangle's Spruce and Community college houses are enjoying a fresh -- but occasionally rocky -- start to the new school year, while others are being forced to live in graduate student housing while renovations to their rooms are completed. This summer, renovations were made to the lower Quad as part of the 10-year, $378.5 million Housing and Dining Renewal Project initiated two years ago. The rest of the Quad will be made over during the next two summers. About a third of the residents arrived this fall to discover refurbished common spaces, renovated bathroom facilities and new music and exercise rooms. And though most students are happy with the changes, many said there are still kinks left over from summer construction that need attention. "I have A/C, a nice sink and a new paint job. I'm happy," Engineering sophomore Julia Vahlsing said. "But there are little things that [officials] haven't gotten around to doing," Vahlsing added, noting that some of her friends were having problems with their rooms. For College junior Danya Kelberg, troubling areas include temporarily absent smoke alarms, incorrect door locks and poor room lighting. "The lights are worthless; they light up about two inches of the room," she said. "They didn't have time to fine-tune things." But for others, inconveniences mean living in graduate housing for an indefinite period of time while their Quad rooms are being completed. Engineering sophomore Peter Brown is an information technology advisor in Spruce College House, but he and his roommate will be trekking to the Quad from Sansom Place West until their room is ready later in the fall. Last spring, Brown reserved his room in Spruce primarily because of the renovations he knew would be made this summer. But a week and a half before coming to school, Brown learned that problems with his room's air conditioning would prevent him from moving into the Quad in the beginning of the school year. "It's hard for me to be excited about [the renovations] when I am three blocks away," Brown said. But others said that while there is still work to finish, the final renovations are moving along quickly. College junior and Spruce Resident Advisor Gerianne Kauffman said that although her hall bathrooms are still incomplete, "everyday [the workers] make a lot of progress." And Mike Pezzicola, a Spruce resident advisor and a Wharton and Engineering junior, noted, "I'm amazed about how much they were able to complete in such a short period of time this summer.
Dust hasn't fully settled as residents adapt to new Quad
