Brit Sharon / Roundup
The presentation on campus renovations and new landscaping designs lead to many questions from faculty at the Pierce College Council meeting yesterday, which took place in the College Services Building Conference Room.
The focus of Richard Berliner, of Berliner and Associates Architecture, presentation was the northern mall, which includes eleven buildings that form the core of the campus that will be under extensive renovations.
The completion date for the mall is set for September.
Construction on the buildings is anticipated to start at the beginning of the Fall 2010 semester. It will consist of three phases and is expected to take up to three years.
The renovations are to include the interiors of all the buildings having new lighting, ceilings, flooring, and any other finishing details. The doors and windows will be replaced in an attempt to conserve energy.
In an effort to make the buildings resemble a Mediterranean environment, the renovations done to the campus’ exterior façade, will include decorative columns, decorative lighting, and new roofs to all the buildings.
Most of the buildings will be a have completely redone bathrooms with seamless shower doors, classrooms, lecture halls, and offices.
The classrooms will have new furniture and provisions will be set in place to accompany future smart boards.
All the products are coming from recycled and sustainable materials.
In hopes of all the renovations staying within the construction budget, the Shakespeare Pavilion may become a reality.
If the exciting new Shakespeare addition can be obtained, it will include the Shakespeare garden, which is an amphitheater right outside to the English department that will be designed for informal performances.
The amphitheater would be located next to building 800.
The Campus Center and Open Hall are both expected to be renovated as well.
The Campus Center will still be used as a faculty center. The Open Hall will be renovated with classrooms, conference halls, and offices. The kitchen will be outfitted for large banquets.
According to Rahel Zewdu, the project manager for the Master Plan, most departments will be changing buildings.
The administration building will house PACE, grants, honors, the foundation, academic outreach, academic affairs, marketing/PR, the presidents office, institutional research, and administrative services.
Building 800 and 900 will be English, speech, and environmental sciences.
Political science, economics, philosophy, and sociology will be in Building 1100.
Computer labs, offices, political science, economics, philosophy, sociology, psychology will be found in Building 1200.
Building 1300 will have offices on the east side of the building, bathrooms, a lecture hall and on the opposite side there will be political science, economics, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and math classrooms.
There will be additional computer labs and math classrooms in Building 1400.
Computer Science and Information Technology department currently occupies building 1500 and CSIT will remain there.
The Learning Center, in Building 1600, will stay as it is and have an art lab and a writing lab, too.
Building 1700 will have classrooms, offices, lecture halls, computer labs and will be occupied by history, anthropology, geography, geographic information systems, sociology, philosophy, psychology, political science, and economics.
Building 1000 was not disclosed during the meeting.
Confusion over the location of the Learning Center arose during the meeting.
“The Learning Center will move to the Library eventually,” said Berliner. “Although until the library is done being renovated we want to continue to offer those services which is why the [Learning Center is still in building 1600].”
With questions of the Learning Center handled, concern over the botanical garden and construction arose.
Berliner states that the botanical garden will not be changed except for the addition of light fixtures along the path that cuts through the center of the garden.
The southern mall also referred to as the Art Hill, include the art, music, and theater department. There are no funds available at this time for renovations, although it does have a future possibility of being reconstructed.
For more information on the Master Plan and to view the document, go to faculty.piercecollege.edu/pcc.