Renovations to library
about to begin
By Lindsey Bowers
Daily Cougar Staff
Wishing for a 24-hour library with a coffee
shop, laptop hook-ups and comfy lounge chairs? What seems like a dream
to finals-stressed
students across campus will soon become
a reality at UH. Groundbreaking is set for 3 p.m. Friday for the $45 million
expansion project to our
own M.D. Anderson Memorial Library.
Pin Lim/The Daily Cougar
The M.D. Anderson Memorial Library will
soon receive a facelift. The $45 million renovation should be completed
by early Fall 2004.
"We want to make the library a place students
actually want to come to," said Dana Rooks, dean of University Libraries.
"We want it to meet their
needs, whatever they may be: technology
access, a quiet contemplative place to study and everything in between."
170,000 square feet will be added, expanding
the current complex by more than 50 percent. Major renovations will be
made to the first, second
and third floors and the overall appearance
of the inside space will be more attractive.
"The results will be completely transformational.
You won't even be able to recognize this place," Rooks said.
Innovations also include a special police
substation, multiple-person computer workstations and collaborative workrooms
for group projects.
"Students have been involved in the plans
for this since the beginning, when we were first coming up with ideas,"
Rooks said. "We went to
various student organizations and asked
them what they wanted the library to have. We've made it so technology
and space is there for you and
your group. Also, we've tried to design
this for as many of the future needs as we can project."
The whole project should be completed around
early Fall 2004. Construction will last for about two years because the
library will remain fully
operational, keeping its same hours during
the remodeling.
"There will be a loss of space in different
spots and during different times, but we're really trying to come up with
all kinds of lines of
communication with the students to let
them know what's going on," Rooks said. "Because of all the inconvenience
the construction's going to
cause, we've developed a Web site to let
students know if things have been moved. For example, the reserves might
be moved from the third
floor to the second, things like that.
We'll post signs on the doors letting people know about any changes; we'll
do whatever it takes to make sure
they know these things in advance. We
don't want to waste students' time."
Members of the library and The Honors College
administration have been developing plans for this expansion since 1996.
The University has
provided $25 million towards the cost,
and the other $20 million will be raised from private donors. To date,
$16.5 million has been raised,
leaving no extra fees pertaining to the
project on students' fee bills.
"It's been a lot of work, but it's been
fun for both the library and the Honors College. We're really thrilled,"
Library Development Assistant Mindi
Morris said.
Photo courtesy of Shepley
Bulfinch Richarson and Abbott Architects
An artist's rendering shows
the new façade planned for the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library. Groundbreaking
for the project is set for Friday.
Among the many other changes to the library
building, 17,500 square feet will be added to the Honors College area.
"Our facility will be one of the finest,
if not the finest facility for honors education in the country. It will
be a gathering place for special events,
speakers and educational leaders that
come to the city. It's certainly going to make UH more attractive to competitively
recruited students," said
William Monroe, associate dean of The
Honors College.
The new addition will be used for classrooms,
seminar rooms, faculty offices, administrative offices and a commons area.
"We hope that the space in The Honors College
devoted to teaching will help alleviate the shortage of classroom space
on this campus,"
Monroe said. "We're pleased that The Honors
College will be included in the new library wing because it means that
honors students will be
coming to the library every day for their
classes. The library is the heart and soul of a first-rate university."
Monroe said he wants the facility to be
used by all interested students and that the space is not exclusive to
honors students only. "We want The
Honors College space to be used by everyone,"
he said. "There are plans to have programs and speakers that will draw
students, faculty and
persons from the community into the honors
area in the library, thereby introducing them to the best the University
has to offer."
Upon the completion of this project, Honors
College student Leah Beltran forecasts the growth of The Honors College
as a whole. "I am really
excited about this. I've gotten to see
some of the plans and it's going to be awesome. It will be great for us
because we will have our classes in
our own college, instead of having them
all in separate buildings around campus. It will give us a chance to expand
as a college and have an
increased sense of community," said Beltran,
a junior nutrition major.
