Highly anticipated renovations to the Education School’s Ruffner Hall began this month after the project received $19 million of state funding.
Total construction costs will reach about $12.9 million, Project Manager Lynn Rush said. “[The rest] is the cost of moving people out of Ruffner during construction,” she said. “We have to pay for rental for other occupancy. When we’re talking about 83,000 square feet, that’s a lot of relocating.”
The new additions will relocate several classrooms and teacher offices, said Wynne Stuart, associate provost for academic support and classroom management. “[What] we’ve really done is reconfigure space so instead of there being multiple offices [and classrooms] on the first floor … there will just be classrooms on the first floor.”
In addition, the building renovations will redesign the classrooms to make them more private, Stuart said. “Right now, the walls on the first floor don’t go all the way to the ceiling,” she said. “Each room will be a more independent entity, [so] sound won’t carry from one room to the next.”
Re-glazed windows, new doors and frames, and additional plumbing and insulation will be just a sample of the improvements to the finished project, Rush said. These changes aim to make the building more accessible for students, who will also be able to use the building to relax in Ruffner Hall’s new cafe.
Education school labs, used specifically by Education students, will remain in operation on the second floor. They will not be affected by the reconstruction.
The construction should be completed sooner than other construction projects on Grounds, Stuart said. The project will be completed by the summer of 2014, with the building ready and open to hold classes by that fall.
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