An overhaul of the HVAC system in the Fine Arts Center will begin in the spring semester, resulting in the fourth floor of the building being vacated and leaving two of the building’s four floors out of service until the fall of 2024.
Offices, classrooms and community spaces on the fourth floor of the FA Center will be unused in the spring, according to Senior Director of Planning, Design and Construction Mary Paula Schuh. The floor houses a photography studio, computer labs, painting and drawing studios and a print lab, which are planned to operate in Steely Library, Landrum Academic Hall and the Natural Science Center for the upcoming semester, according to a newsletter from School of the Arts Director Matthew Albritton. The second and third floor of the Fine Arts Center will remain open in the spring.
HVAC maintenance was expected to commence in the summer, but the contractor requested that the fourth floor be vacated in the spring semester so they can swiftly begin work on the lower stories come summer, according to Schuh. The news was announced to SOTA faculty and students in late October.
“The new HVAC system is top-down with each floor fed from the one above. Because of this, work cannot begin on the rest of the building until work is engaged on the top floor. In order to maximize the summer building shut-down and keep the project on track and not overlapping Fall semester, we will need to vacate the 4th floor for the upcoming Spring semester,” explained Albritton in an email to the SOTA community announcing the change in plans on Oct. 25.
The affected programs will operate fully in the spring semester in their temporary locations. Faculty members with offices on the top floor will occupy stopgap offices. Those faculty are responsible for packing the belongings they wish to move to their new offices into boxes, which will be moved by a labor crew, said Schuh. Other equipment, like desktops and printers will also be moved into the new spaces. Furniture and other nonessential items will be left in the work zone but covered for protection or placed in storage, said the senior director.
Getting the space prepared for work will take place over winter break, said Liz Birkenhauer, associate director of Planning, Design and Construction.
The FA Center’s bottom floor has been closed since mid-summer when workers began gouging the earth beneath the first floor slab, which contained shale deposits that expand and exert upward pressure on the floors above it. This left parts of the first-level floors uneven and posed the threat of the building’s walls creeping up and causing cracks on higher stories. The project is reconfiguring the floor slab to form a gap between it and the shale deposits below so that the floors are unaffected by the ground’s swell.
Construction on the first floor is currently stalled because of the discovery of electrical systems that need to be relocated to continue work. The team also opted to replace underground plumbing pipes while the demolition leaves them unearthed, said Birkenhauer.
“They want to replace all the underground piping since it’s our opportunity, it’s all exposed. That way we’ve taken care of it and doesn’t leak in the future,” said Birkenhauer.
The entire building is expected to be open in the fall of 2024, the Planning, Design and Construction associates said. Some of the HVAC maintenance is forecasted to spill over into the summer of 2025, which should only call for closures in parts of the building that summer, according to Schuh.
“They are going to get as much of the work done in the summer of ‘24 as they can, but they are projecting that they’ll be back in the summer of ‘25 to finish what they don’t complete,” said Schuh about the contractor’s timeline.
Students who are impacted by the imminent mix up understand the necessity and value of the facility upgrades but are disappointed about the uncertainty they feel approaching the spring. Although the affected programs have been allotted improvised spaces, two photography students who spoke with The Northerner expressed concerns about their whereabouts for next semester.
“Everything feels very out in the open,” said senior photography student Elly Wiggins.
“It should be okay though, I’m just worried about having the space. Like having enough space,” said junior photography student Hannah Wentzel.