Renovations transform Hamilton

Hamilton College House -- once brown, crumbling and outdated -- now appears green, sleek and modern.

The renovation, priced at about $26.5 million, is part of an $80 million, six-year plan to renovate all three high rises, which were built over 30 years ago.

"It's like an apparition from another world -- a bright, gleaming future," former College Houses and Academic Services Director David Brownlee said of the freshly completed high rise.

Still, much of the internal plumbing, wiring and appliances remain the same in the student rooms of Hamilton, widely known as High Rise North.

Praising the construction overall, Hamilton resident and College sophomore Amani Hassan expressed disappointment at "some of the little random things" like appliances and bathroom fixtures that were left untouched.

"If we had overhead lighting we'd feel like we were in a real apartment," Hassan said.

Yet officials said they did the most with the funds they received. "It's a little [budget] to squeeze this much change out," Brownlee said, adding that "almost every surface has been touched" as a result of the almost $1 million per week of construction spending.

Harrison and Harnwell college houses are scheduled to be renovated in upcoming summers, and according to Brownlee, remain "dark, forbidding, like a thundercloud of unhappy rain."

While the Hamilton project finished on time, it did not proceed without accident. In late June, one of the project's construction workers fell to his death from the eighth-floor scaffolding. And a week prior, another worker stabbed his coworker on the job, leaving him critically injured.

Over the summer, Harrison, also known as High Rise South, underwent its first phase of renovations -- including cement repair and new fire safety systems -- with more drastic changes scheduled for next summer. Both Harrison and Harnwell will undergo renovations similar, but not identical, to the completed Hamilton.

"Since they're now college houses and not dormitories, they have to have characteristics of their own," said MGA Partners architect Daniel Kelley, who worked on the project.

Some new changes in Hamilton include a made-over lobby, new furniture, a fitness center, renovated kitchens, a package room, two music practice centers and 1,064 separate thermostats.

The lobby features slate floors, wooden accents and a fireplace. Stainless steel panels, which can function as bulletin boards, line the elevator banks. Now extending to the floor, windows add more light to the rooms.

The windows are "brighter, lighter and more transparent... a way to bring life to the building that it didn't have," Kelley said.

Finishing touches -- including trees, slate pieces and patio lampposts -- remain to be added. Workers are still moving furniture and finalizing components of some student rooms. But according to Brownlee, the terrace behind Hamilton will undergo renovation once the move-in bustle is over.

"With a double row of trees... a kind of foresty backdoor room" will be created on the terrace, Brownlee said.

For now, "the Penn student of the future" lives in Hamilton, Kelley added. The building's modern-style furniture includes ergonomic and brand name pieces, such as the "Diamond" lounge chair, "Handkerchief" dining chair and "Womb" lobby chair.

The furniture is "kid-tested, president-approved," Kelley said, noting the styles were selected by students last fall. "It doesn't evoke that sense that someone in facilities bought a truckload of furniture."

The building has so far been met with positive reviews. Beginning her second year as a resident of Hamilton College House, Wharton senior Lavanya Ashok thanked Kelley for his work on the renovation.

"You have beautiful glass windows," Ashok said. "We don't have holes anymore, and the furniture matches."

The entire renovation to Hamilton -- which had about 160 workers on site at the peak point of construction -- was a rare feat of quick construction, according to Kelley.

"The nice thing," he said, "is that we got a nice job done fast."

While many new students will be moving into dormitories today, some students from various college houses have been housed temporarily in the Sheraton University City. University officials said relocations such as these frequently occur when more students than expected accept their housing assignments. It is unknown when the students will be able to move into dormitories.

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