This summer is shaping up to be less busy than 2023’s, but some projects, including opening up Carle Hall’s lobby, are slated for work in the coming months.
“It really is a [demolition] project, for the most part, [demolishing] a lot of the walls,” Colin Burdick, assistant director of facilities services, said of Carle.
To make the common area in Carle’s lobby more open, the team is going to move the community director’s room to where the game room currently is.
“It’ll be mostly a flooring, finishes and furniture type build,” Burdick said.
Burdick said the team was able to complete some more Holloway bathroom renovations during the winter and got an early start on summer planning.
Burdick also said over spring break the team was able to get a start on replacing the chiller system in the Media Arts Center.
“That work is ongoing, it should be wrapped up in a couple [of] weeks,” Burdick said.
As for other focuses on campus, he said wrapping up the Spaulding Gymnasium stairs project by installing sprinklers underneath is upcoming.
Additionally, completing Holloway bathroom renovations on the first and second floors, as well as some roof replacements on parts of the Redfern Arts Center and sculpture studio are on the docket.
When it comes to the former Monadnock Hall and Randall Hall space, Burdick said it is up to Antioch University to take the steps to start construction.
The Equinox previously reported Antioch had looked to have a building constructed and have Blake House renovated as early as the fall of 2024, but construction has not yet started.
“That is still really in Antioch’s court,” Burdick said. “We have no plans to do anything with that from the Keene State perspective. We’ll minimally maintain it so the grass will look a little long,” Burdick said.
Nathalie Houder, vice president for finance and administration at KSC, said while the partnership will certainly move forward, there have been delays with the building process.
“They are experiencing the same things we’ve experienced in past years as they have designed the building and done the shared governance with everybody having input into that design and then they got the cost estimates for that design and it was way over what they had initially anticipated,” Houder said.
Houder said inflation and design costs have caused Antioch to return to the planning process to look at tweaks so they can make the project more economical.
Now, instead of starting construction this summer, Antioch is eyeing the fall of 2025 as a start date, with a spring 2026 finish.
“They have a model that’s partial hybrid, so a lot of [classes are] already done online and then they have the students come in [sometimes],” Houder said.
The prospect of the new building certainly remains a priority for Antioch though, Houder said.
“They’ve reduced the space usage, so they certainly can’t wait to get there, to this building, because that’s going to open them up to a lot of things that they’re doing without right now,” Houder explained.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
