Completion of new THs may be delayed

Brian Farkas News Editor

Delayed Town Board approval might result in a holdup of construction of the new Town Houses (THs) Director of Residential Life Luis Inoa announced in an e-mail sent to all students on Feb. 1. Because of the delayed construction, that the new THs and Co-ops would be removed from the upcoming housing draw, Inoa said.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Vice President for Finance and Administration Elizabeth Eismeier. “We’re working as hard as we can to get these plans through, but the process is moving exceedingly slowly.”
This new housing, which is intended to accommodate approximately 50 students, was primarily to alleviate the pressure that will be placed on the College’s housing during the renovation of Davison House.

The construction, however, requires two different types of approval. First, Vassar needs site-plan approval that includes broader issues such as the locations of buildings, utilities and roads. Next, construction requires building permits, which deal with architectural issues and are overseen by the Town Building Department.

Representatives from the Town Board were not available for comment at the time of publication.
“Only after we have site-plan approval will they look at the building plans,” said Eismeier. “But their official review process, which usually takes between four and six weeks, has not yet started.”

The Town Board asked Vassar to meet 26 requirements after looking at the original set of plans that the College submitted in November. All of these issues were addressed before winter break. “We have now been given additional requirements, a few at a time, in the weeks that have passed since [the end of winter break].” The number of questions and requests from Town officials now numbers close to 50. On Monday morning, officials from each Town department that must provide an official sign-off discussed the proposed plans and addressed their concerns.

“At this juncture, we remain cautiously optimistic that we can start construction at the end of March,” said Buildings and Grounds Senior Project Manager Naomi Davies. “There is risk, however. The combination of receiving approvals late and the possibility of winter weather into March and April, as we have experienced in recent years, may push the schedule past a September completion.”

The Town Board hired an independent firm of engineers to double-check various requirements on local building projects, and it was this third party that has been sending Vassar more questions and requirements. “This isn’t the way this normally works,” Eismeier explained. “We thought that once we addressed those 26 questions, that was all we had to speak to, but apparently there has been a change in the process.” These additional questions have been resolved as of Monday morning, but it is still unclear whether more issues are going to arise.

“I don’t want to imply that their questions don’t deserve answers, but usually they don’t withhold approval like this. Regardless, we’re working closely with the town to try to give them all of the information no matter how trivial or how important, very different from what we’ve experienced in the past,” Eismeier said. “I can promise you that we’ve pulled out all stops on our end to respond to the cascade of additional requirements as they’ve reached us,” she said. “I believe the picture is still not definitive.”

Kirchhoff Construction is in charge of the project, a firm that has completed several projects on campus, including the construction of the new Terrace Apartments (TAs), the interior renovation to the THs a few years ago, and the exterior renovation of the old TAs last summer. “We believe they are the best firm for this project, said Eismeier. “We have asked them for alternatives for the construction schedule to see what options we can consider, given the delay in Town approvals.” The firm that just completed construction on the stairs of the quad dormitories several months behind schedule will not be used again.

Vassar Student Association (VSA) Dorm Renovations Coordinator Andrew Bennett ’09 has been working closely with the administration on the construction of these new houses.
“I tried to make it clear that, if we don’t know for sure whether these dorms will be ready, we can’t put them in room draw.” According to Inoa, there will be 73 five-person TAs, 44 four-person TAs, 56 five-person THs, and nine five-person South Commons apartments available in the coming housing draw. The total number of spaces available is 541.

The potential delay on these new THs will not affect the upcoming renovation of Davison House, which will be offline during the 2008-09 academic year. “Myself and the administration felt pretty strongly that we shouldn’t put the Davison project on hold,” said Bennett. Eismeier said. “There’s a sense that the community is really ready for that construction, and we believe that we should press on with it regardless of whether the new THs are ready for the start of the fall.” Though the College has not yet signed on with a contractor for the project, that step in expected in the coming months when the bid is put out.

The administration will discuss contingency plans, depending on whether the construction is completed in time. “We need to be sure we’re prepared, with the knowledge that even if we do get all of the necessary approval, things still happen—weather, backordered supplies and the like,” said Eismeier. Davies said, adding that “Alternate approaches are being considered as we speak to try and make up time lost in the approval process.”