Commons construction halfway finished

Contractors have finished more than half of the Tyler Haynes Commons' $3.19 million renovation.

Although the apologetic signs on its entry doors have found their home for the rest of the academic year, the phased improvements have kept the building open. The new Commons will include a social area, more storage and a nicer look, three things student focus groups have ranked as most important since planning began in 2007, said Steve Bisese, vice president for student development.

That year the leadership honor society Omicron Delta Kappa identified the Commons as the biggest concern for President Edward Ayers in its White Paper, a document the group gave to Ayers outlining goals members wanted Ayers to accomplish as new president.

A fall 2006 student government survey had identified it as third, but the Weinstein Center for Recreation and Wellness and recent residence hall renovations had claimed the top spots.

"In both the student government surveys and the White Paper, what students wanted with the Commons [was]: loud, social space, hangout," Bisese said. "The No. 1 hangout space is what I went with."

The hangout space isn't part of the first construction phase.

The renovation began in June on the third floor with the Career Development Center, which opened in October.

The student leadership center for Westhampton and Richmond Colleges' student government associations and the Campus Activities Board will be added to complete the floor's renovation by mid-February, university architect Andrew McBride said.

The first-floor renovation began in January. Max Vest, director of student activities, said the finished product would be a hangout space with games in it, including a pool table, a couple of foosball tables and five to six gaming stations.

A bowling alley was not possible but Wii bowling might be available, said John O'Donnell, associate director of student activities. The renovated room will be called "Current" for its proximity to the lake, Bisese said, and it is set to be finished between mid-March and April 1.

The center staircase will be open by that time, but the second floor will be under renovation for the rest of the semester. Work on the second floor began during winter break to get partial flooring done. The tile is not finished because of the two-week curing period for the concrete that could not be poured until the handrail was in place, McBride said. Most of the tiling will be done by early February, but the portion in front of the Office of Student Activities won't be completed until the remodeling of the office, which won't be until after graduation in May.

Although some students have complained about the inconvenience of having construction in the school's prime walkway, more said it was a matter of aesthetics.

"It just looks like a barracks," Junior Jeff Latov said.

The construction was not an inconvenience, he said, but the orange traffic cones and incomplete tiling make the building less attractive and pleasurable to walk through.

But according to Bisese, "It's just the price you pay to renovate a building like that. It'd have been worse if you just shut the building down."

Herb Peterson, vice president of business and finance, said it was hard to name the specific source funding the Commons because the university's spending drew from many areas, such as the net tuition, room and board, endowment, annual giving and bookstore revenue.

This is the only project the university is paying for in full, unlike the other construction projects, for which the university has borrowed $45 million from the Virginia College Building Authority.

The authority lends money to private institutions on a tax-exempt basis, and Richmond has folded its 2002 series bonds into a 2009 bond series for a total of $74.7 million to be paid back in 30 years.

Vest, along with Bisese and Joseph Boehman, dean of Richmond College, consulted with McBride and university facilities to plan the renovation. University facilities is acting as its own general contractor, McBride said, with additional outside subcontractors such as electricians and plumbers.

Although some students had been expecting a student-focused transformation of the building, the planners opted for a renovation in order to keep it open and to comply with the Chesapeake Bay Act that requires a 100-foot buffer between construction and the lake.

"We can't build a new building, so it's just great that we've done as much as we can," Bisese said.

The building also still needs to house the bookstore, Tyler's Grill, offices and meeting spaces, Vest said. Ninety-three students unanimously voted for the Commons at a Gottwald forum, Bisese said.

University facilities designed the renovation in-house in conjunction with H.L. Reed Design Inc., which helped design the first-floor game room and the streetscape treatment of the second-floor corridor.

"We're trying to bring the outside in," McBride said of the streetscape concept, an effect that will be achieved by slate tiles, plants, streetlamps mounted to the brick walls and teak benches like those in the forum. The handrail was moved back to widen the corridor, and eight to 10 electronic bulletin boards will be installed to replace the banners and group cases. The face of the bookstore will also be pulled out and will include a new window to create a Main Street look, possibly with an entrance in the middle of the hallway.

Glass has also replaced the wall that separated the stairs from the third floor. The glass has achieved the required smoke barrier, while opening up the third floor to a view of the lake and more light, McBride said.

There are also more meeting rooms included in the plan - two reservable spaces and four that are available to any group. There are 18 to 21 storage areas in these spaces for groups that don't require permanent rooms.

"I actually gave up my conference room to that space," Bisese said.

Minor remodeling was done on the Office of Student Development, as well as on the Office of Multicultural Affairs, One Card Services and Common Ground. Because the CDC took up a space the length of the Alice Haynes room, Vest said he found alternative meeting spaces for the WDCE radio station and The Collegian office in the North Court basement.

"We really squeezed every inch out," Vest said.

He said the changes to the game room would be dramatic, but in a good way, with a black-tiled ceiling. The Westhampton hanging lounge will be divided into two levels as part of the revamping.

University officials conducted a Think Tank on Monday, Jan. 19, to ask for feedback about gaming equipment preferences. But, only one Richmond student attended, Vest said, so he will move forward with the equipment purchase. The Office of Student Activities will pay for most of the machines and licensing until there is a set budget to reimburse them.

Vest will contact organizations such as Knight Games and Computer Gaming Club for additional input, as well as solicit suggestions again from students for game and operational procedures and policies closer to the room's completion. He is also exploring licensing policies, which are costly but necessary because the games will be presented in a public space.

As a result, Vest said officials were looking into wireless headphones, but they cost $200 per pair. It's more of a concern than the disturbance of the construction itself, which has not been terrible, O'Donnell said. He guessed it was probably worse for occupants of the third floor, but Bisese said he was just excited about the changes.

"Change always brings some sense of worry or frustration, but I think we took most everything into account," Bisese said.

Contact staff writer Maura Bogue at maura.bogue@richmond.edu