Danielle Rivard
Equinox Staff
Effective for the upcoming academic year, the labs and classrooms located in Adams Technology Building and Butterfield Hall will be moved to a warehouse on Ralston St.
Jay Kahn, Vice President for Finance and Planning said the college has a pre-existing lease with the warehouse located at 57 Ralston St.
Kahn said the college chose the location because of its proximity to campus, on-site parking, and space for accommodating the programs.
“The schedule for renovation of the warehouse as well as the costs are both getting worked on now. The contractor is reviewing the renovation in order to make it as cost and time efficient as possible,” Kahn said.
The facilities on Ralston St. are primarily for Sustainable Product Design and architecture.
All of the architecture and Sustainable Product Design faculty offices and classes will be held on Ralston St. as well.
The Ralston St. property will include three instructional spaces: the product design lab, a woodshop, and the computer assisted design lab. It will also include four classrooms.
As for Safety majors, faculty and classes will be in Elliot Hall as well as other on-campus classrooms.
The classroom space will be provided by two portable structures that will encompass four classrooms on the same property as the warehouse.
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Without the four classrooms, the warehouse is 6,500 square feet. The additional classrooms add another 4,000 square feet.
Architecture major and KSC sophomore Chelsea Griswold is pleased with the proximity of the warehouse.
“I’m happy that the temporary building is going to be as close as it is because I heard it might have been a farther location,” Griswold said.
“I’m also glad that there will be lab space available because I thought we were going to have to buy our own drafting tables and work in our rooms,” Griswold said.
The warehouse will be fully renovated and ready for use for the fall of 2011.
The college intends to utilize the facility for the entire academic year, until the new Sustainable Product Design, architecture and safety building is built.
Architecture professor Donna Paley said she feels that the temporary move is manageable.
“I feel that relocating is manageable because we’re so excited about the new building,” Paley said.
However, the biggest concern is dealing with the curriculum in the mean time to make sure that students don’t get short-changed during the construction.
“We plan to work with Campus Safety to include the warehouse property as part of campus so that students can be escorted back to campus at night.”
Furthermore, the architecture department plans to use the construction of the new Technology Design and Safety Center as a learning experience and teaching opportunity for students.
“What’s exciting is to look at this over a construction period. The Technology Design and Safety Center will add real high-quality academic spaces for students. We’ll do the best we can with the temporary building and look forward to the new building,” Kahn said.
Danielle Rivard can be contacted at drivard@keeneequinox.com
