From the June 18, 2007, Princeton Weekly Bulletin
This summer will mark a culmination of the physical manifestation of the new residential college system on campus.
Whitman College, the 255,000-square-foot complex between Dillon Gymnasium and Baker Rink, will be finished after four summers of intense construction work. The completion of the University's sixth residential college will make possible the launch of the new system.
Along with expanding the size of its undergraduate student body by 500 students by 2012, the University is improving its residential system to better serve students as well as to provide them with more options. Under a plan created by faculty, students and administrators, three four-year residential colleges will be established and paired with three two-year residential colleges.
As the system is being phased in, five dormitories that are part of Butler College will be demolished this summer. A new set of buildings with room configurations more conducive to residential living and exteriors better suited to the surroundings will be erected in their place.
Here is a rundown of these and other construction projects taking place on campus this summer, provided by Anne St. Mauro, director of the Office of Design and Construction:
• Whitman College -- With most of the dormitories and other facilities surrounding two courtyards at or near completion, crews are concentrating work on Community Hall, the complex's dining hall, and continuing furniture delivery. The first occupants will be the college staff and the staff of the Princeton Writing Program, which will move in during June or July in advance of the students this fall. A dedication ceremony for the college is planned for Thursday, Sept. 27.
• Butler College -- Work to raze Lourie-Love, 1922, 1940, 1941 and 1942 halls began immediately after Commencement, with the goal of having demolition completed by the time students return in the fall. Wu Hall and 1915 Hall, also part of Butler, will remain. Construction of the new dormitories is expected to begin immediately following demolition activities in September. The project is slated for completion by fall 2009. In the interim, Butler students will be housed in 1915 Hall, Bloomberg Hall and Cuyler Hall. Bloomberg will remain a part of Butler College after 2009, while Cuyler will revert to being an upperclass dormitory.
• Four-year college conversion projects -- Several dormitories are scheduled for work this summer to accommodate the conversion to the four-year college system. They include Forbes College and Madison, Buyers, Witherspoon, Campbell, Little, Edwards, Joline and Blair halls. While each involves a slightly different component, according to St. Mauro, all tie in with the goal of creating better social and programming spaces in the colleges as well as making room for graduate students. As part of the new system, each four-year college will house 10 graduate students. The work also involves transforming the college dining halls into non-institutional, welcoming and distinctive eating spaces.
• Frist Campus Center -- One other aspect of residential life that will change for students next year has to do with mail delivery. All undergraduates now will have a single address for individual mailboxes in the Frist Campus Center that they will keep during their four years at the University, rather than starting out with mailboxes in their residential colleges. As a result, construction will be going on in Frist this summer to install the mailboxes by the start of the fall semester.
Some reshuffling of space on Frist's 100 level will occur to create the room. The University Store branch in Frist will close, and the convenience "C" Store will move to the space occupied by the Healthy Eating Lab. An ice cream and coffee bar will take the place of the "C" Store. This aspect of the project is expected to be completed in late fall or early spring semester.
A centralized package delivery service also is planned for the 100 level. For the fall semester, this service will be located at Dillon Court (the temporary trailers south of Dillon Gymnasium) and will move to Frist for the spring semester.
Turning to projects involving academic buildings:
• Armory/chemistry building -- The Armory south of Jadwin Hall is scheduled to be demolished in July or August to make way for the new chemistry building. Crews already have been relocating utilities and should begin excavation this fall, with foundation work to follow in the winter. The four-story chemistry building will encompass between 240,000 and 250,000 gross square feet and is scheduled for completion by fall 2010.
• Lewis Library -- The Frank Gehry-designed facility on the corner of Washington Road and Ivy Lane is scheduled for completion in August 2008. Crews plan to complete the window wall and make the building weather-tight by this fall, so that interior work can be finished this winter. The remainder of the time will be taken up with moving in many books and other materials. The 87,000-square-foot structure will house the biology, chemistry, geosciences, mathematics, physics and statistics collections, the map collection and the digital map and geospatial information center.
• Jadwin Hall -- Renovations on the fourth floor of Jadwin will provide offices, seminar rooms and other collaboration space for the new Center for Theoretical Physics. Crews will be cutting windows into the walls to provide for more natural light. The work is expected to be completed by next spring.
• New engineering building -- Construction of a new building to house the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering and the Center for Information Technology Policy began in March. The 46,000-square-foot, four-story building, located between Mudd Library and Wallace Hall, is scheduled to be completed in August 2008. For the next several months, most of the work will occur below ground. Construction of the steel structure should be visible in September.
• Stanhope Hall renovation -- Work to renovate historic Stanhope Hall on the front campus to house the new Center for African American Studies began in January and should be completed by August. New mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems have been installed. The walls will be repaired and new windows put in place before the center moves in at the end of the summer.
• McCormick and Wallace halls repairs -- Crews will be working on McCormick Hall this summer to provide a better building seal and will be repairing the limestone on Wallace Hall.
Finally, on an intercollegiate athletic facility:
• Soccer stadium -- Work began this spring on a new state-of-the-art soccer stadium for Princeton's men's and women's teams. The new facility, slated to open in fall 2008, will be located on the site of the current venue south of Poe-Pardee Field. It will include a three-sided stadium with seating for 3,000, a lighted playing field with a natural grass surface and an adjacent practice field with an artificial surface. Three free-standing pavilions will house a ticket office, press box, team rooms, a concession stand, restrooms and other facilities.
