Construction of the Sims Hall Department of Public Safety Communications Center is set to begin over Winter Break, along with various other campus construction projects.

Many small maintenance projects and a few large projects will begin over the break, said Eric Beattie, director of the Office of Campus Planning, Design and Construction, in an e-mail. Improvements to Bowne Hall public spaces, renovations of Smith Hall for studio and office space and a basement renovation in Lyman Hall are among the projects, Beattie said.

Construction of the communications center will begin during Winter Break, Beattie said. The communications center will be built in the open courtyard space between Sims and Lowe Art Gallery, and it is expected to be complete next summer.

The communications center is the only significant construction project winter weather is expected to affect, Beattie said. Construction on the communications center will take place outdoors during excavation and the installation of new footings during its early stages. The contractor will protect the work from any inclement weather with tarps, Beattie said.

Depending on the purpose of the construction project, funding comes from different sources, Beattie said. The reserves from the budgets of separate schools and colleges usually fund small to midsize academic space projects, and the university’s annual operating budget contains a functional improvement fund for the same purpose.

Projects for administrative and support units such as the Sims DPS Communications Center are paid for by an institutional requirements fund, also part of the university’s annual operating budget.

Classrooms in The Warehouse will undergo acoustic improvements, Beattie said.

Improvement of Carnegie Library’s third floor public spaces will take place over Winter Break. The Office of Campus Planning, Design and Construction is planning renovations next spring to relocate mathematics department functions to the lower level of Carnegie and plans to improve Carnegie’s reading room in summer 2011, Beattie said.

Plans to restructure the second floor of Carnegie may include reopening the building’s original doors, according to a Sept. 22 article in The Daily Orange.

Robin Pepper, a freshman civil engineering major, said she thinks reopening the original doors would be less confusing for incoming students.

‘I still feel like students would be more likely to use the inside steps anyway,’ she said.

Larger projects, such as the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications broadcast studios, will mostly be funded from fundraising gifts, corporate support and other outside sources, Beattie said.

Newhouse is developing a fundraising budget for the planned renovation of the broadcast studios in Newhouse II, but a timetable has not been set, Beattie said. Changes to the studio space, equipment and control room were proposed last year.

Haven Hall’s former dining center still remains vacant after closing last spring, but alternative uses for the facility are still being considered, Beattie said.

‘I’d like it to be a gym or a little café because always going to Ernie is kind of annoying,’ said Ashley Thombs, an undeclared major in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and Haven resident. She said turning the area into a study space would also be good because of the lack of study locations on campus.

Beattie said he hopes February or March will bring a clearer outlook on what is to become of Haven’s former dining center.

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Published on December 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Breanne: [email protected] | @bre_vann