Campus eyesore staying put, renovation plans in the future

Most people really do try to speak nicely of Ballantine Hall. But it can be tricky.\n"Ballantine is a very vertical building," Vice President of Administration J. Terry Clapacs says. \n"It's uncongenial to say the least," says Bloomington Faculty Council President Bob Eno.\n"I spent a lot of time in the building as an English major and have fond memories," Trustee Pat Shoulders says.\nCome on.\n"The building is a sore thumb sticking up from the ground," Shoulders says.\nNow, that's better.\nSince it was completed in 1957, 10-story Ballantine Hall has been the "ugly duckling" of campus architecture. Some feel the building is too tall, too concrete, the stairs too steep. Others have claimed with "tongue in cheek" that it's the biggest classroom building in the country.\nNow 45 years later it's also in desperate need of internal repair, said history chair John Bodnar.\nBodnar, who has an office on the seventh floor, said there is not enough air-conditioning, the elevators break down and power-outages are all-too common.\n"It heats up like an oven, and one of the elevators is always down for repairs," Bodnar said. "There have been some minor improvements, but it still has some real drawbacks that need to be addressed."\nClapacs said Ballantine has problems that now go beyond its design. \n"It's not just a matter of looking bad; it doesn't work well either," he said.\nIn addressing the Ballantine breakdown, the Bloomington Capital Projects Committee debated whether to demolish the building and build a new one in its place. \n"If we had the opportunity, would we scrap it? The answer is yes," Clapacs said. \nAlthough support for demolition was strong, the committee settled on renovation. The committee concluded that the replacement of Ballantine could not be undertaken because there would be nowhere to move the classrooms during the project.\nThe committee proposed that a new humanities building be built to house half the Ballantine refugees at a time during two separate stages of renovation. \n"A new humanities building will have to be constructed before," Eno said. "It will receive people from Ballantine one-half at a time, as it is remodeled from top to bottom."\nThe Humanities building will also decrease the number of classrooms in Ballantine. The recommendation was sent to the chancellor's office. \nWith the state in the midst of a financial crisis, Eno said both projects won't be underway anytime soon.\n"Capital funds from the state have dried up," he said. \nShoulders said the multi-disciplinary science building is a bigger priority than the Ballantine project.\n"It's hard to know where Ballantine would fit in terms of campus priorities," he said. "There are other pressing needs."\nMeanwhile, Eno said the snack bar on the bottom floor of Ballantine was changed to a faculty-only lounge this year to mollify its increasingly unhappy occupants.\n"It was a recognition that faculty are living in conditions that are subpar, and they are under increased stress," he said.\nClapacs said construction on Ballantine will not begin in "the foreseeable future."\n"We need to do our best to keep it in good repair," he said. "It's all we have at the moment"