Say goodbye to sweaty Augusts, Old Dorms. This summer, Housing and Residence Life will continue an extensive renovation of both McCormick Road and Gooch-Dillard residences, including new bathrooms, updated lounge spaces and the installation of HVAC systems on McCormick Road.
The McCormick Road renovation additionally includes the installation of elevators, upgraded electrical systems and improvements to student rooms.
The McCormick dorms will be off-line over the upcoming summer in preparation for the renovations, which will begin in May 2017.
“What we’re doing this summer is enabling work,” Director of Business and Facility Services Patricia Romer said.
In Gooch-Dillard, the renovation work specifically includes the conversion of single rooms into doubles. The Dillard residences will be off-line for renovations during the upcoming academic year.
These considerable changes have been a part of HRL’s long-term plans.
“We have been talking about the renovation at McCormick Road for at least the last 15 years,” Romer said.
While HRL is aware of the necessary dormitory upgrades, the office incorporates student input into the process of making changes.
“We know the age of the facilities … we know what we need to do in the [buildings],” Romer said. “[But] we do [take] student feedback, and we take that into consideration … especially how to increase amenity space.”
For example, this year HRL partnered with First Year Council to conduct focus group work concerning potential changes to the Gooch-Dillard lounges, in order to provide “an environment that makes sense for the students who live there,” Romer said.
The furniture in the student rooms is selected through a vendor furniture fair, and the updated outfitting of Old Dorms will be completed based on student preferences and feedback, Romer said.
Katie Seeger, a first-year College student and Old Dorms resident, thinks the lounge renovations will be crucial to the first-year experience and social atmosphere living in a dorm provides.
“[The Hancock residents] all hang out down there the most,” she said. “We survive without AC, and taking the stairs is probably good for me anyways.”
First-year College student Christine McDermott, another resident of the McCormick Road dorms, said she believes the most important upcoming improvement will be the bathroom renovations.
“[Living without air conditioning] was not that bad … we literally had five fans always blasting,” McDermott said. “The bathrooms [need improvement] … because they’re nasty.”
The renovations to Old Dorms will be complete by the fall of 2020, while Gooch-Dillard will be completed by the fall of 2017.
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