Cary Quad to renovate buildings
By Anna Herkamp
Summer
Reporter
The fall of 2001 will be one of the last years
residents of Cary Quadrangle will be able to see certain rooms as the
residence halls originally existed when it was built in the late 1920's,
says Chris Marks, manager of the Cary construction project.
This summer the main renovations at Cary involve
upgrading wiring and plumbing and installing air conditioning in the
suites of Cary Quad east, which will be available for students this
fall.
The plan is to renovate all four buildings of Cary
within the next several years. This summer Cary east is under renovation
and the next building to be updated will be Cary northeast, which will
be finished for the fall of 2002.
The construction project will continue west onto
the other buildings over five phases in the next several years. Right
now it is difficult to say exactly when it will be complete, Marks said.
"We can't look too far ahead," he said. "For now
northeast is go and northwest we can't say for sure." The next construction
phases depend on funding and building approval, he said.
A recent completion of a part of the Cary project
is the installation of a switch gear vault in the courtyard. The hole
it occupied left much of the open space unusable during the 2000-2001
school year, but was filled in at the end of April.
The switch gear vault will eventually provide power
for the whole residence hall.
Cary east and northeast will have suites similar
to those of Hillenbrand residence hall, however Cary's will be slightly
bigger said Tim Gennett, vice president of housing and food services.
The new suites have several advantages over the
old ones. The new rooms will be about twice as big as the old ones.
Because of the greater amount of space, bigger, more computer-friendly
furniture will be put in the rooms. In addition, each room will have
adjacent bathrooms.
"Cary east will be the model for the rest of the
projects and the general idea for future construction. All upgrades
will have the suite concept including kitchenettes on each floor and
a new computer lab," Marks said.
For all the new additions, the project will still
retain much Cary's heritage. The construction will not upgrade Cary's
historic exterior design from the late '20s and early '30s, Gennett
said. "We are trying to preserve the historic architecture by using
the same molding, finishes and color palette."
For the fall semester, all new suites are rented
out. The suites are assigned with upperclassmen getting priority over
younger students.
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