South College plans finalized

By Catherine Bratic     10/9/08 7:00pm

The first residents of Duncan and McMurtry Colleges will not be a new generation of freshmen. Rather, they will be Baker College and Will Rice College students relocated from their own colleges during the south college renovations, Facilities, Engineering and Planning Project Manager Kathy Jones said. The renovations to the south colleges will begin next May and finish in August 2010. Over this 14-month period, the "new" wing of Will Rice will be replaced, Baker's tower will be removed, a new wing of Baker will be constructed along the inner loop, the seventh and eighth entrances of Baker will be handed over to Lovett College, and a new servery will be constructed between Will Rice, Sid Richardson and Lovett colleges. A total of 82 beds will be added to the south colleges in the project, Jones said.

Hopkins Architects is designing the buildings for the projects. Matthew Taylor, Adviser to the Dean of Undergraduates, said they are making sure the new additions blend in with their surroundings.

"One of the important parts of the architects' vision for the buildings is that they be of a scale that matches the buildings that are already there," Taylor said.

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This will include choosing a brick color similar to the ones used in the current Baker and Will Rice buildings.

The servery, in contrast, will take on more of a modern feel, Jones said.

"I would characterize it more like the [Brochstein] Pavilion almost," Jones said.

In addition to improving the quality of each building, Taylor said the renovations will also give each college a clearly-defined quadrangle.

"What this ultimately achieves is a clear delineation of the space of each college," Taylor said.

Though it is still in the planning stages, the renovation will include big changes to Sid, which include tearing down the current Sid commons and constructing a new one adjacent to the new Will Rice, Sid and Lovett servery, Taylor said.

Other construction projects on campus are continuing as planned despite week-long delays imposed by Hurricane Ike, Susann Glenn, FE&P Director of Communications said.

"I think the biggest issue we had post-Ike was getting a return to the normal work force that we had on campus," Glenn said. "On some projects we had ... 200 people on site one day, and then the next day 17 people came, because most people were dealing with their own issues."

Despite the hurricane, the new Recreation Center is still on schedule and is set to open next August. The building will have two basketball courts, racquetball courts, a competitive pool, an extended weight room and multiple-use gyms among its services. The Rec Center will also house the Wellness Center, which is currently located next to Brown College.

As part of the Rec Center's design, the wood from the Autry Court basketball court will be reused on the walls of the new Recreation Center, FE&P Project Manager Joe Buchanan said.

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