This summer, a flurry of about 100 large and small construction projects had begun on campus—many of them have already been completed. They are part of a five-year $400 million capital plan that RPI has for existing buildings, south campus, and even the surrounding neighborhood.
In terms of recent construction, RPI erected a boiler plant (powered by natural gas and heating oil) by the Service Building that has a great deal more capacity than the existing one, as well as a chiller plant to bring air conditioning to more buildings on campus. A new electrical substation will bring additional capacity for electrical distribution, though RPI still plans to purchase electricity from Niagara Mohawk for the foreseeable future. Additionally, city infrastructure around RPI has been renovated to accommodate storm water management, water capacity, sewer capacity, and other needs arising from the EMPAC and Biotechnology Center construction projects.
The East Campus Athletic Facility plans have continued through another revision after local residents opposed earlier plans. The revised plans, according to Claude Rounds, vice president for administration, will go to the City of Troy for approval in the near future, with construction scheduled to start next year and be complete in about two and a half years.
On South Campus, the Institute continued the refurbishment of existing residential properties—two of which have been converted for use as graduate student housing. Additionally, RPI purchased the Pizza Bella property on College Avenue and, in partnership with the owner, renovated the building’s exterior while he refurbished the interior prior to re-opening a short time ago.
After technical problems with the wind tunnel facility in the Ricketts building and a subsequent visiting committee report recommending its replacement, the JEC has become the home of a new state-of-the-art wind tunnel facility, geared primarily toward offering a learning experience to mechanical and aeronautical engineering students.
The primary residence hall improvement over the summer was the renovation of the BARH dining hall in concert with Sodexho. The dining hall is now enclosed by a wall-to-ceiling wood-and-glass partition and has a single point of entry—the old layout made it difficult to control the flow of people in and out. This allowed Auxiliary Services to offer BARH students a choice of any of the meal plans, rather than simply the top two tiers, and other students the option to use MAD/RAD for entry. As for the plans for next summer’s residence hall refurbishment, Rounds indicated that plans and proposals are now being circulated and a decision will be made sometime in the next few months.
In the area in front of Sharp Hall, a new fountain—a gift from the Class of 2005, with landscaping sponsored by the Class of 2006—was constructed over the summer. Last week, as the Board of Trustees visited, the fountain was dedicated to David Haviland ’64, vice president for institute advancement, who will be retiring in December.
As the fall semester began, renovations to the second floor of Folsom Library were substantially complete. The renovations brought a new, brighter look to the second floor and substantially changed the circulation and reference desks. Computer terminals are now located on the four sides of each of the floor’s many pillars. The mural of the upside-down Earth map, which shows a projection favoring a larger southern hemisphere rather than the north, that will go behind the Circulation desk, has not yet arrived but is expected to shortly.
Following extensive student complaints and promises of a solution to the amount of unnecessary vehicular traffic on campus, an internal assessment group has been formed to perform an assessment of Institute delivery and receiving processes. Though there are currently no plans for a Central Receiving facility as the Institute has had in the past, Rounds indicated that there is an effort underway to cut unnecessary traffic through the campus walkways that students use. The next phase of that process includes a rear-delivery entrance for Sage Laboratory and a new setup for delivery to EMPAC and the Biotech Center that will aim at reducing the danger to pedestrian students from internal campus delivery traffic.
As with any capital construction campaigns, both large and small plans have been made and are being completed. While the larger, more long-term projects ultimately fulfill Institute aims, smaller incremental improvements both support the larger projects and improve the quality of life of students who will be gone by the time some of the larger projects are complete.
