Classroom buildings like Franklin Hall are not the only spaces on campus changing this year.
A few of the residence halls, including Foster Quad, will undergo needed repairs over the next few months.
John Lewis, associate vice president of Capital Planning and Facilities at IU, said Foster Harper’s repair comes after a study by an engineer earlier this year to determine its necessity.
“The limestone panels that are on that building were identified for maintenance,” Lewis said. “We will be doing similar repairs to all of the buildings over the course of this calendar year, so we’ll do one building, finish it, move to the next one and so on.”
The necessity of this type of repair depends on the specific dorm building, Lewis said.
“For this type of dorm, you’d probably want to review the exterior every 30 to 40 years,” Lewis said. “We made similar repairs to Hillside about two years ago.”
According to an email sent out to residents of Harper at the beginning of February, the repair is a safety measure and must be completed during the school year and into the summer.
Students in Harper were warned to expect noise, to place plastic coverings over windows to prevent dust from entering the rooms and sidewalks may be blocked off during transfer of equipment to the site.
“During this project, there will probably be some noise,” Lewis said. “We won’t start before or go past a certain hour. There may be an instance where an entry to the dorm may be closed, and you may have to use an alternate entry. This will be kept as minimal as they can.”
Equipment was slated to arrive Feb. 9 and the project officially started this week.
Students were advised to wear noise-cancelling headphones during the crew’s work hours through the week, from 8 a.m. to about 4:30 p.m., if that was a concern.
Caroline Moorin, a resident living in Foster Shea, said a few visible differences have marked the repair project, but she has still been able to move about without issue.
“It’s pretty noticeable because a lot of things are blocked off, and there are huge fences all around Harper, but nothing is inconvenient,” Moorin said.
That said, the noise level change is noticeable in Shea, and Moorin said she does not recall receiving an email warning her of the possibility.
“It woke me up this morning because they extended it to the other buildings,” Moorin said. “It’s really, really noisy now that it’s not just at Harper.”
Moorin said construction has become a part of her IU life, so she is not worried about how this new project will change her day-to-day routine.
“It might just be a little more getting used to now that it’s more around me,” Moorin said. “I don’t think it’ll be much different since the entire time I’ve been at IU, I’ve been living around the construction.”
The construction is part of a larger end goal, Lewis said, as one part of President Michael McRobbie’s plan is to have all the dorms renovated by the bicentennial.
Residence Halls such as Read Hall and McNutt Quadrangle are being repaired in phases as well, Lewis said, and a few currently non-residential buildings, Memorial Hall and Goodbody Hall, will be converted into supplemental residence halls.
Lewis said he wants to emphasize how much effort goes into ensuring the projects will not cause too much inconvenience for students day to day.
“We do take every precaution to ensure the needs of the occupants are met first,” Lewis said. “There are some inconveniences, but we try and minimize those the best we can.”
