Campus construction jobs set for summer

Students will have their last chance to sit on concrete benches outside residence halls before they are demolished in June. The effort will be one of many renovations being made to residence halls and academic buildings this summer.

Roof repairs will take place on Hood, deFredenburgh, Moffitt, Wilson, Kent and Harrington halls. The heat-recovery units installed on the rooftops will bring heat exhausted from the building back inside.

Energy-efficient lighting will be installed by the courtyard outside Adirondack Hall and behind Macdonough Hall. Meanwhile, an energy-efficient pump motor, which would circulate hot water throughout campus, will replace the multiple pump motors performing the job now. 

“Our main savings will come from upgrading heating and electric systems,” Construction Project Development and Field Oversight Professional Jules LaPoint, who oversees construction projects, said.

To avoid fire-safety violations, architects will replace all fire doors inside Adirondack and Banks Halls. The new doors are meant to lock tightly.

“When there is a fire, a lot of pressure builds up in the building and doors are incredibly important to prevent fire from spreading,” Bryan Hartman, director of housing and residence life, said. 

Harrington will be the next residence hall to close as part of the housing office’s 10-year master plan, which involves annually renovating one building. Renovating Hood Hall was the first step toward completing this project.

Changes to Harrington include upgrades of electric and heating systems as well as the addition of an elevator and lounges with kitchenettes on every floor. Each dorm room will have a new circuit breaker, energy-efficient lighting and a system allowing residents to control heat levels.

Lighting will be replaced with compact-florescent units that emit brighter light by consuming less energy than the lighting currently in place.

“Technology in lighting has come a long way in the last few years,” La Point said.

However, students will lose the opportunity to live in Harrington Hall’s largest dorm rooms on the second and third floors. These rooms will be replaced by lounges. Each dorm room will also lose a few inches of space to make up for interior insulation.

“None of the residence halls were insulated when they were built, which is bizarre to me,” Hartman said.

Windows in the basement lounge of Harrington Hall will also have insulation. Today, these windows are comprised of single-paned glass with aluminum framing. New windows will feature double-paned glass with a type of insulation gas in between the two slides.

Windows will also be replaced in Yokum and Memorial halls, as well as Clinton Dining Hall, which will undergo bathroom and stairway repairs.

Phase two of Hudson Hall’s renovation will continue this summer. The project is slightly behind schedule because safety personnel are removing more asbestos than the amount estimated by a design-phase survey of hazardous material.

The Beaumont Hall renovation project will begin in August. The project is similar in scope to Hudson’s changes.

Alterations to the pond by Hawkins Hall are in the pre-design phase, according to a report by capital projects manager Rick Larche. Once renovations are complete, the pond is expected to run year round. The lawn will also serve as a teaching area for professors of environmental science.

The renovation of residence halls, besides the work done to Harrington as part of the master plan, is funded by a savings account, which the housing office set up for construction projects. The master plan project is funded by money burrowed in the form of bonds issued by the Dormitory Authority of New York, a state entity that issues bonds to SUNY schools and other public institutions.

Hartman said the Harrington project will cost about $4 million.

The price of construction projects outside the master plan varies. Roof replacement of Kent Hall, for example, costs about $222,000.

The third building to be renovated as part of the master plan is deFredenburgh. Delta Engineering and Mach Architects, the design teams behind the renovations to Hood and Harrington, plan to have a design for deFredenburgh by December 2012.

Hartman said deFredenburgh may include a multi-purpose, sound-proof area where students can engage in activities such as studying or playing music.