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Burrowes Rededication Ceremony - April 16, 2016
Burrowes Renovation
Three objectives for the renovation stand out. One, and perhaps the most important, is to provide efficient and effective new building systems to heat and cool. To that end, the campus chiller will be connected to the building to provide air conditioning, new heating will be installed, and all windows replaced. Second, the interior of the wings will be redesigned to provide more efficient space configurations to meet contemporary and future demands for the building. Third, the exterior façade of the wings will be improved to be more consistent with the central core, ideally through some windows. Finally, the building will be made more accessible throughout and the renovated building will meet LEED environmental sustainability standards (http://www.nrdc.org/buildinggreen/leed.asp). The exact plans to accomplish these things are being developed.
The original plan called for a two phase renovation but it was later decided to renovate the entire building in a single stage.
During 2012, initial programming was done to identify the size and use of each existing Burrowes space and priorities for the spaces in the renovated building. This was a slow process requiring balancing needs and wants and making the mental shift from the desire to improve existing space to an imagining of how space might be completely renovated and rearranged to allow us to meet our needs better now and into the future.
During this period, the engineers moved ahead with measurements and tests required to design the new systems for the building and began to sketch those out. Planning for window replacement and knuckle redesign progressed.
The president approved plans to demolish and rebuild the knuckles to the building, slightly expanding them and adding a curtain wall on the mall side and a more limited glass panel on the Pond side. Thought was also given to the staging of the project, with a three-stage process being seriously considered because of the lack of adequate swing space for faculty and staff to relocate to during the renovation.
Beginning early in the spring semester, plans and designs for interior arrangements were conceived, tested, and modified. This process is nearing its completion, and soon plans will be submitted for University approval (the OPP/College/department team, the business and finance vice president, the president).
Meanwhile, planning is moving from a general design to a consideration of who goes where in the building. That process will take the next few weeks. The faculty-staff advisory committee will be part of the conversations as plans advance.
Simultaneously, architects and engineers have worked to design the exterior changes, which will now include not only windows on the mall side of the wings, but the redesigned and expanded knuckles, replacement of all windows in the building, and probably some work on the wing entrances. A final selection of the exterior and knuckle plans remains.
Toward the end of 2013, we decided to build the building in one phase instead of two, construction contracts were let with Board of Trustee approval, and faculty and staff moved to temporary locations.
Construction began in January and the connectors between the core building and wings were removed. Every effort is being made to preserve the historic tree behind the north connector. The subbasement was lowered to accommodate new heating, ventilation, electrical, and plumbing equipment. The interior was gutted, raceways for new cabling inserted, and new walls constructed. By the end of the year, all new windows had been installed throughout the building. The process of choosing furniture and other accoutrements began.
Construction on the new connectors began in January 2015. By mid year, interiors are being finished. Planning is underway for faculty and staff to move back into the building in December 2015.
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