Reid Raudenbush, Director of the Physical Plant, said the "building's being renovated completely, from top to bottom" and that "from the mechanical room all the way to the roof is going to be new."
About $1.5 million are being spent on the renovations to Queen Anne's House. Started in June of 2001, the renovations to the resident section will be complete in April of 2002. The health services portion of the building will be complete in August of 2002.
Queen Anne's was originally built in 1963.
"It's 1960's architecture, which was pretty utilitarian," Raudenbush said. "An architectural historian might connect the lineage to the Bauhaus school of architecture in the 1920sthere was this movement to a very stark, boxy, efficient, utilitarian worker housing. It's very German."
Some features of that trend are also characteristics of Queen Anne's House: flat roofs, double-loaded corridors, and shared baths. "There was a huge construction boom in the 1960s to deal with the baby boom," Raudenbush noted. He said that colleges across the U.S. typically have housing built in that time period similar to Queen Anne's House.
"They're built like bunkers," Raudenbush said. "They're solid as a rock. They're virtually fireproof and indestructible. It's very 'cold war' ... the basements in these buildings would have made great bomb shelters.
The buildings from this time period are solid and safe according to Raudenbush. The problem with them is they're forty years old also.
The college is currently in the process of implementing a multi-year plan to improve housing on campus.
"The plan is not only to make new housing and replace temporary housing, but to, one by one, renovate the old structurally sound buildings with all new finishings."
The renovations to the building are certainly extensive, including new air conditioning, plumbing, furniture, paint, lighting and even basic wiring. The fire alarm, telephone line, waterline and roof are being replaced.
Of particular convenience to students is the replacement of outmoded window air conditioners with new individual heating and air conditioning units, which allow year round, effective temperature control in each room. Also, the replacement of built-in furniture with modular furniture the students can rearrange to meet their needs should be welcomed.
The building is also made safer by the addition of a sprinkler system where none was before. Buildings like Queen Anne's are "pretty fireproof, but they'll be even better when they are done," Raudenbush said. If one were to visit Queen Anne's House now, only the floors and the walls would be there. Although only the bare structure of walls and floor will survive the current changes, the building's spirit of the Bauhaus architectural movement will survive in its utilitarian layout.
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