Ruggles, Other Residence Halls Slated for Summer Makeovers

While students are busy mulling over possible options in the perennial housing-selection process, administrators have their own annual housing ritual: renovations.

This year, Undergraduate Housing will focus its efforts on the seven- and eight-person suites in Ruggles Hall which have not already been renovated. As part of the biggest project this season, changes include the complete renovation of the kitchens, bathrooms, and flooring, and the replacement of lighting and furniture. Housing will also remove the 40-60 square-foot “L-rooms” and the dumbwaiter shaft, and completely reconfigure the bathrooms. The large suites will now have eat-in kitchens and bathtubs in place of cramped shower stalls.

Scott Wright, the head of Housing and Dining Services, said the four-person Ruggles suites received an update rather than a complete makeover because “We wanted to choose the half that more students would experience. Renovating a suite for seven to eight affects more people.”

Some other sites slated for renovation this year include the top two floors of John Jay, the 10th floor of East Campus, and the brownstone at 531 W. 114th St.
The flooring in many halls will be replaced with wooden flooring made from entirely sustainable materials. In Schapiro, vacated rooms with worn carpets will be dealt with on a room-by-room basis, unlike most projects, which are usually undertaken simultaneously. Depending on student reactions, this could be extended to all the rooms in the building. The top four floors of Broadway will also see a change in their flooring.

“The carpeting in Broadway is, well, bad,” Wright said. “It shows a lot of stains, is hard to clean and is tough on students with allergies or asthma.”

The floor lounges in Schapiro will also be renovated over the course of the academic year, beginning next week with the lounge on the 14th floor.

“This will be a sort of ‘model lounge,’” said Jose Rosa, assistant director of University Residence Halls. “We will get student input to see if this works and is user-friendly. Once we smooth out the kinks, we will move on to changing the other lounges. The whole process is scheduled to be completed by 2009-2010.”

All renovations are usually done over the summer, but the makeover of the lounges in Schapiro will be the first time that changes will be made during the regular academic year.

“The eight weeks in the summer is limited time for the number and scope of projects we want to undertake, and so we are trying out this model of working,” Wright said.

“It’s a trade-off, but it will, naturally, benefit the students.”

As though that weren’t enough, summer housing presents even further time constraints.

“The most difficult buildings to renovate are Broadway, Schapiro, and East Campus because they are empty only three weeks a year,” Wright said. “Once work in Ruggles is complete, we may be able to vacate Broadway and Schapiro. We can’t close them down over the summer because students in summer housing won’t have air-conditioned housing otherwise. The off-campus residents who live in EC over the summer are the sources of revenue for the renovations, and so we have to strike a very delicate balance between providing accommodation and vacating spaces for renovation.”

Though the second elevator that was planned to be installed last year in McBain hasn’t yet materialized, Wright said that all other projects—and then some—to which Housing had committed for this year were completed. In addition to working on the elevator, Housing will make improvements to the McBain roof and possibly add another floor to East Campus.

“We also need to keep in mind the needs of the construction crews and of people living in the neighborhood,” Wright said. “To this end, we don’t work around-clock and are sensitive about the times we carry out noisy work. We prefer to work slowly, with consideration of the people around us, and we haven’t had problems when we’ve done that.”

According to Lisa Gamsu, vice president for Administration and Capital Planning at Barnard, 20 suites in 616 W. 116th St. will be renovated this year, with particular attention being paid to the kitchens and bathrooms. New flooring will also be put into 620 W. 116th St. and possibly Brooks Hall.

When asked if mold damage in Elliot Hall had been repaired, Matt Kingston, associate director of Residential Life and Housing at Barnard, said: “To my knowledge, there aren’t any mold problems now. Facilities went in right away. We had some students move out temporarily so facilities could pull up the carpet, deep-shampoo it, and all of that ... One of the students chose to make permanent move, but the other students have since moved back.”

monica.varman@columbiaspectator.com