The newly created? Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy will move to its permanent home in Garrett Hall by spring 2011. In preparation for this move, renovations to the building are scheduled to begin in summer 2009, said Richard Minturn, senior academic facilities planner in the Office of the Provost.
Completed in 1908, and designed by Stanford White -- who also designed Cocke, Old Cabell and Rouss halls -- Garrett Hall housed the University's first dining hall large enough to hold a significant number of students. As such, it is a historically valuable part of the University, Minturn said.
Brian Hogg, senior historic preservation planner for the Office of the Architect, said as part of the renovation, the University hopes to restore parts of the building to make it more similar to the original.
"A conference room ... was added in the late 1950s," Hogg said, "We'd like to restore [the main room] to its original size."
Hogg also said the University will work to restore the original woodwork, chandeliers and ceiling still present in the building.
"A certain amount of work is just plain repair and preservation," Minturn said, "and a certain amount is updating systems." These updates include adding new sprinkler and air conditioning systems, he added.
On the main floor and the second floor, no radical changes to the floor plan will be made, Minturn said. Instead, "we will work to a significant degree with the plan that is there, carefully removing things that have been added that don't fit well with the original building,"
The lower level, however, will include more extensive changes, Minturn noted, in order to provide important resources specifically needed for the Batten School, such as seminar rooms and student workrooms.
As for the outside of the building, the change most noticeable to students probably will be the elimination of the dead-end road extending toward the sidewalk from the alley near the West Range Café, along which students often park their cars.
"The alley behind [the building] will stay, the alley to the sidewalk will be taken out," Hogg said, adding that he is not yet sure what sort of landscape elements will take the place of the short road.
Although the plans have yet to be set in stone, Minturn said the renovation will be more than simply updating a building.
"The project is a mixture of meeting the needs of the [Batten] School and respecting the historic fabric of the building," Minturn said. "There could be some tension in that, except that the school is really glad to have this wonderful landmark building as its first home, so everyone is really on the same page."
The project will be a collaboration between Batten School administrators and those involved in the architectural planning, Batten School Director David Breneman said.
Representatives from the Batten School will meet with the architects in charge of the remodeling, Breneman said, to discuss what elements might be included in the plans. So far, many of the preliminary discussions have related to possible uses of the building's space.
"People want decent spaces for offices, decent spaces for student interchange to work on group projects," Breneman said.
Minturn added that additions may be made to the building in the future if need be, noting that if any faculty from other schools -- including the College, Darden, the Law School and the Education School -- teach courses at the Batten School, there will probably need to be some extra office space for the part-time faculty.
"The building needs to have a little stretch space for faculty to come in part time, and it looks like it's going to have the flexibility to accommodate [that]," Minturn said. "That's a neat thing, bringing together people from different schools and disciplines."
As Garrett Hall will soon house only the Batten School and its faculty, Minturn said, there are already plans in place for the movement of the faculty who currently have office space in the building. Minturn noted, for example, the College association deans will move to Monroe Hall, which is available now that the Commerce School has moved into Rouss Hall. Most University employees currently working in Garrett Hall should be moved into their new offices by June 2009, he added, just before the construction is scheduled to begin.
As plans for relocating faculty and renovation progress, Minturn already is looking toward the long-term future of the Batten School's new home.
"We expect the school to be terrific and to grow and eventually need more space in the 10 years-out time frame," Minturn said. But by that time, "we expect [they will] be supported by alumni and donors"
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