Construction on quad dorms finishes up

Nate Kimball Staff Writer

By next week, the residents of Strong House and the quad dorms will have something to be glad about. The construction projects on the dorms, which have been ongoing since the start of term in September are wrapping up, with the scaffolding to be taken down in front of Strong within the next week.

Myriad renovations have been made to the quad dorms, overseen by Project Manager Art Fischer and Associate Executive Director of Buildings and Grounds Jeff Horst of Buildings and Grounds. Raymond, Davison, Strong, and Lathrop all received new front doors, with Strong, Davison, and Raymond receiving re-done masonry on the steps leading up to their front entrances.

A new pavement was built in front of Raymond and Davison, with eleven outside lamps added to ease walking between these two buildings. In addition, all lobbies and parlors were refurbished, with Raymond receiving new furniture. Raymond had the most repairs, with the addition of a new hidden sprinkler system and a new electrical system throughout the building.

The last renovations to be finished are the construction on the six chimneys in Strong, which was carried out by Succato Construction of Poughkeepsie and designed by CVN consultants.

“The chimney construction was crucial. The state the chimneys were in threatened property and people,” said Horst. Though the chimneys are not used in Strong or in any of the dorms, Horst noted that “they are an important architectural feature of the buildings that we wanted to conserve.” With the repairs that have now been made, Horst expects the chimneys to last another 50 years before more action needs to be taken.

There were some problems along the way. “The largest issues we encountered were early morning noise complaints and parking complaints,” Fischer. To make the new pavement outside Davison and Raymond it was necessary to close the parking lot outside those dorms for a period of time.

Starting times for noisier projects were pushed back to 8:30 a.m. rather than 7:00 a.m. to accommodate student complaints about the noise disturbing their sleep.
While complaints have fostered actions such as a group on facebook.com entitled “The Construction Workers Are Slowly Going to Break Me,” some students did not mind the din outside their rooms every morning.

Jordana Merran ’09 of Strong House commented, “I don’t mind the noise, actually. It keeps things lively.” But many other students voiced their noise complaints to their house team.

Still, Horst said that most students recognized that patience was necessary, and were “very understanding.”

“It was of course a huge hassle and an inconvenience, but the chimneys needed repaired,” said Strong House President Heidi Genrich ’08.

Horst noted that the largest issue with the chimney construction on Strong was an ethical one. With scaffolding right outside the windows of an all-female dorm, it was necessary that workers kept to their tasks. Horst said, “Both students and construction workers were very cooperative and patient with each other.”