Construction on both Monroe Residence Hall and Doty Hall is underway, with plans for Monroe to reopen to students in the spring semester of 2013.
According to George Stooks, assistant vice president for facilities and planning, the construction on Monroe will be completed this fall and ready for student residents in the spring. Construction on the residence hall, which began in the summer of 2011, has included changes to the building systems and floor plan.
“The reconstruction of Monroe is what’s considered a full-gut rehab, meaning all building systems have been torn out and updated with modern systems,” Stooks said. This includes installation of a new addressable fire alarm system and sprinklers throughout the building.
Construction also included changes to the floor plan, which includes the ability to isolate certain combinations of rooms from the rest of the building for use during small summer conferences. The building’s changes “accommodate a wider variety of student needs,” Stooks said.
Across campus, construction on Doty Hall, which began in fall 2010, is back on track after a brief period late last semester during which the project’s former contractor was unable to complete the job.
“They were no longer financially solvent enough to complete the project, which has nothing really to do with this project, but with more projects they had going throughout the country,” Stooks said.
According to Stooks, Whiting-Turner, the project’s new contractor based out of Baltimore, Md., remobilized in mid-January, bringing the project “back up and running.”
“They present themselves as very professional [and] very capable, and we look forward to them completing the project in a high-quality manner,” he said.
After construction on Doty is completed, the building will house Geneseo’s Office of Admissions and the Office of College Advancement, as well as the Geneseo Foundation. Its third floor will be used for administrative offices. The building will also house a state-of-the-art recital hall for campus use.
For years, the building has also housed the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, a state agency that has, according to Stooks, maintained an excellent relationship with the campus. The agency will continue to operate out of Doty Hall on the building’s garden level with access from the west side after construction has finished.
Both Monroe Residence Hall and Doty Hall will make use of geo-thermal wells used for winter heating and summer air conditioning.
Due to a new contract schedule, the completion date for Doty’s renovations has yet to be set.