The Yale Residential Building -- or "swing dorm," as it is popularly called -- will welcome its first inhabitants this fall. The new facility, which will provide temporary housing for students whose residential colleges are undergoing renovations, was among the major construction and renovation projects undertaken on campus this summer.
The new precast concrete, brick-faced residential building has 108 student suites, each with two bedrooms, a living room, kitchenette and bathroom. Also in the building are master's and dean's administrative offices, a dean's apartment, and several activity spaces, including lounges, computer rooms, an exercise room and a common room. A courtyard faces south, toward Tower Parkway.
This year, the "swing dorm" will serve as home to students from Berkeley College, which will continue to undergo renovations begun in May.
"This renovation will be the most comprehensive of any ever done within the residential colleges, and as a result the building has been taken out of service until August 1999," says Archibald Currie, director of project management, Office of Facilities. Every building system within Berkeley College will be upgraded, and windows will be replaced with architecturally compatible new components. The kitchen and servery will be expanded and significantly altered. The college also will be more handicap accessible, and basement student activity spaces will be restructured to become more relevant to student needs and interests. It is anticipated that the completed renovation will be a model for construction in other residential colleges.
Extensive renovations have also been undertaken in Sterling Memorial Library in recent years. In the fall of 1995, a comprehensive renovation program was initiated to address concerns about the deterioration of the library's vast collections. Pages were crumbling, inks were fading, and systems were needed inside the 65-year-old structure to offset environmental elements and the natural process of aging that jeopardized the main library's 4 million works.
Several renovations in the central bookstack tower were completed this summer. Air conditioning systems were turned on, providing cool air to the stacks for the first time. New lighting, heating and electrical systems also were activated in the tower, along with new fire alarm and telecommunications systems. In addition, the space received new exterior windows and elevators.
The Periodicals Reading Room also is being renovated. The room is receiving air conditioning and new lighting, and both restored and new millwork are being installed. The roof is being refurbished to address water penetration in the room.
At the same time Sterling Library is being restored, the structure also is receiving an addition: The Irving S. Gilmore Music Library.
Named after a major Yale benefactor, the music library was built within Sterling Library to provide a single, central site for the University's approximately 130,000 music holdings -- which have long outgrown available space in Sprague Memorial Hall.
The new music library is a 26,000-square-foot structure created by filling Sterling Library's former northwest courtyard and improving surrounding interior space. In the basement are bookstacks and a historic sound recording room. The first floor houses a listening area, exhibition space, offices and two seminar rooms. Additional offices are on the mezzanine level, as are periodical stacks and reading and technical services areas. A new arched truss ceiling structure allows indirect natural light into the courtyard space.
"The entire area is now air conditioned and sprinklered," notes Currie. "The spaces within this library are equipped with state-of-the-art fire detection and smoke evacuation systems. All reader areas are wired for power and data transmission."
Linsly-Chittenden Hall underwent extensive renovation this summer. Originally built as the main University library, the Chittenden portion of the building was constructed in 1890, while the Linsly portion was added in 1906. A structural renovation during the 1930s transformed the library into a classroom building.
"Because of the very heavy use of the building over its long life, all major building systems were in need of replacement," says Currie. In addition, "contemporary standards of comfort and technology dictated the need for cooling, more efficient lighting, and full data, network and audio-visual capability."
The hall was taken out of service last year for the refurbishment, which includes a new roof, stone repair and cleaning, and new windows. Room interiors were slightly reconfigured. Teaching spaces are concentrated on the lower floors, while faculty offices are on the upper floors and in a new attic floor constructed over the Chittenden side.
"Lecture Hall 101 was totally reconstructed, with a stepped floor and new seating, with data network connections at each seat," says Currie. "Room 102 was restored to nearly its original appearance, but with more efficient and attractive lighting, and full audio-visual capability."
Every seminar room and classroom received new lighting and audio-visual and data networking support. Interior finishes were redone. All 11 floor levels of the building are now completely accessible, thanks to a new interior stair and elevator. A new front entry permits easy entrance for persons with disabilities and accommodates the heavy traffic into the building from High Street.
Linsly-Chittenden Hall was not the only renovation project on Old Campus this summer. Several other repairs took place, and the entire area was closed off to address a serious concern. Currie explains: "For many decades, as the City of New Haven has grown around Yale's Old Campus, the surrounding development has severely taxed the municipal sanitary and storm drainage systems to which all of Yale's buildings are connected. In the specific case of Old Campus, the rainwater and sanitary runoff were collected into one combined piping system, a common design until recent years. This arrangement, coupled with the inevitable clogging of old pipes with tree roots and other debris, had led to a situation where sewage would back up into the Old Campus basements during times of major rainstorms. This summer, after extensive study and planning, this problem was fixed."
Other work on Old Campus this summer includes renovating the bathrooms, refinishing the wood floors, repairing the stair treads, and repainting or replacing all the furniture in Durfee Hall; reconstructing all the bluestone walkways over new concrete slabs and setting beds; extending Yale chilled-water distribution system to provide air conditioning to a number of nonresidential locations on Old Campus; and modifying the fire sprinkler distribution system to enhance system reliability.
In addition, deteriorated lawn areas were replaced with new sod set on rejuvenated topsoil; the historic "Yale Fence" bordering the lawn was reconstructed; new landscaping material was installed; and the statue of Nathan Hale was relocated to a more prominent space near Phelps Gate. The underground telecommunications, audio-visual and electrical distribution systems acquired upgrades, and the foundation and heating systems within Dwight Hall were repaired. Also, the architectural finishes, paving and lighting in and around Phelps Gate were renovated.
Completed in 1932, the Payne Whitney Gymnasium is one of the nation's largest athletic facilities. But basic system deterioration over the years, an increased emphasis on collegiate sport, and the introduction of a coed student body created the need for changes and upgrades.
During the summer months, work on Phase I of those changes and upgrades continued. Completed this summer was the new 22,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art exercise and weight training center, which replaces the old racquetball/handball courts (see related story, page 12). Other summer completions include the varsity basketball and volleyball locker rooms, located beside the amphitheater; the new central corridor leading to the new addition; the sports medicine facility renovation; the third-floor women's recreation locker rooms; and the fourth-floor varsity locker rooms.
Work on other Phase I projects is expected to be completed by March 1999. Among these is the Colonel Lanman Center, a new, 57,000-square-foot brick and glass addition housing four new basketball courts, four volleyball courts and a suspended indoor running track. "Improvements to the existing building," adds Currie, "will include renovations to many of the locker rooms, an enhanced entry lobby with new vestibules and lighting, improved ADA accessibility, and a new central corridor located above the crew tanks which will link the lobby with the addition. There will also be significant upgrades to the building's mechanical, electrical and fire protection systems."
Across campus, at the Yale Center for British Art, a contemporary structure that opened its doors to the public just 20 years ago, workers continued to refurbish the roof -- which wasn't as straight-forward a task as one might expect, says Currie. "This building had no ordinary roof assembly," he explains. "It is constructed with an elaborate arrangement of numerous individual skylights, which contain baffles, filters, and diffusers to modify light and screen out the direct rays of the sun. The re-roofing work has necessitated the temporary removal of each of these skylights, and consequently the building was vulnerable to the infiltration of rainwater. This, coupled with the loss of environmental control of the spaces within, instigated the closure of the museum to the public while the work was underway."
While much of the roof renovation was executed this summer, the museum will remain closed until January of 1999, when completion of the work is expected. During the closing, along with roof repairs several other maintenance and upgrade activities are taking place. These include new carpet, wall coverings, a better reception desk and recaulking of the exterior panels.
Also this summer, the Jonathan Edwards College master's residence was vacated to allow for several renovations. They include replacing the heating system, existing electrical wiring and plumbing piping; adding air conditioning in selected areas of the house; refurbishing existing bathrooms and inserting a new handicap-accessible guest bathroom; renovating the kitchen, pantry and servery areas; refinishing windows, and completing exterior wall and roof repairs.
Over the past several years, a comprehensive program has been established to modernize Yale's heating, air conditioning, electric and telecommunication systems throughout Central Campus. That work, focusing on the Central Power Plant on Tower Parkway, the Pierson Sage Power Plant on Science Hill and "a vast interconnecting network of underground pipes and tunnels," is now drawing to a close, says Currie.
"The entire network is designed to meet the University's utility needs in an environmentally responsive and economically sound manner for the next half century, " Currie says. "The new utility systems started to come on-line as we approached the end of 1997; however, the construction activity to complete the installation continued, literally surrounding the new equipment. This summer, the completion of the addition to the Central Power Plant and the commissioning of the electrical generators were the last major components of the work to be done, complementing the total interior renovation of the existing 82-year-old Gothic structure. The new Central Power Plant has greatly enhanced capacity to produce sufficient steam and chilled water to meet all current and future needs."
In the addition there are three turbines fueled by natural gas and designed to generate both steam and electricity. The equipment, explains Currie, adds to the boiler and chiller capacity installed over the past year.
In addition to all the construction and renovation on campus, work has also begun on a new off-campus building. Although Yale's library system houses 11 million volumes in 16 Central Campus and Science Hill area locations, this still is not enough space for the University's vast holdings. To address the matter, an off-campus shelving facility is being built in nearby Hamden, Connecticut.
"Books will be shipped to this location, cleaned, bar-coded, sorted according to size, inventoried" and stored on elevated shelves, says Currie. "Inside the storage area, elaborate temperature and humidity control systems will protect the books and other artifacts in a way not possible in a conventional library. He adds that a computerized locator system will allow for quick retrieval and Old Campus delivery of any held work.
The new building is scheduled for occupancy in November.
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