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Plans unveiled for proposed new community

Drawings and site plans shown to students for the first time at the October 9th HCC meeting.
Wasim Ahmad - News Editor

courtesy of Karen Fennie/Physical Facilities
Full view of the new buildings rendered by computer.

Plans and computer renderings of the buildings proposed for the new community between Hinman College and College-In-the-Woods were unveiled at the Hinman College Council meeting Tuesday night.

“I haven’t felt this way since I had my children,” said Larry Roma, associate vice president for Physical Facilities. “It’s like giving birth, although longer - we’ve been at this for two years.”

Plans were received that day from the design build-team and were displayed that evening at the meeting. Students got a glance of several drawings, which detailed tentative plans for the new community. The pictures were the preferred proposals out of the four that were received from various design-build teams, according to Roma.

The buildings are designed to have 284 beds spread across five floors. The floors will consist of six-student suites with two bathrooms in each suite. According to Karen Fennie, communications specialist for Physical Facilities, site work, including running utility lines to the site, will begin this winter.

Funding is already in place for at least one of the four buildings, and the rest is forthcoming. The residence halls are funded by bonds from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, which are paid back by students’ room rates. State buildings, such as the proposed dining hall/collegiate center in the new community, are funded by the State University Construction fund, Fennie said. In addition, Assistant Controller Anna Cornell added that the buildings will not affect tuition.

Cornell said that a lot of students’ interests were taken into consideration with the formation of the plans.

“Through a lot of student input, we ended up with our new design,” Cornell said.

Students voiced their concerns about the purpose of the new community.

“We designed these buildings to both alleviate the housing crunch and allow the University to grow in size,” Roma said.

Hinman residents were concerned about the possibility of more construction on campus, although according to Roma, construction will not start until after 8:30 a.m. and will be on an elevated area, away from the bulk of Hinman College.

“I’m not looking forward to the construction, but in the long run it will be beneficial to the school to alleviate overcrowding,” said Jenny Post, HCC president.

Also discussed in the meeting was a possible restructuring of the main road that runs around campus, “the brain,” to reduce the amount of pedestrian-car conflict, although such sweeping changes wouldn’t happen for at least five or 10 years, Fennie said.

The renovation of the dining hall was also a topic of debate at the meeting, although the renovations should be complete in time for the added burden of another building, which is slated for completion in June 2003, according to Roma.

Jennifer Pankowski, a senior philosophy, politics and law major and a resident of Hinman College, said she wasn’t looking forward to the upcoming campus construction because of its proximity to the nature preserve.

“It’s like having too much on your plate and going back for seconds,” she said. “Students are losing their sanctuary, their place to get away.”

However, Roma assured those in attendance that the nature preserve would not be touched.

The plans are already underway, but Pankowski still criticized the University for the timing of the construction.

“When they start construction in the winter, everyone is already used to being here,” she said. “They’ve already got my money, and now they’re going to start ripping up the ground.”