CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – As the new student suite-style housing projects rise on either side of East Main Street and openings are scheduled for August for the start of the 2015-16 academic year and the start of second semester, Clarion University officials are hopeful that the perceived “canyon-effect” of the buildings is not in evidence when completed.
The construction project recently saw the elimination of extensive scaffolding on the building on the north side of the street, opening the area. The top floors of the buildings will feature student housing for 728 students, while the ground floors will include a variety of functions such as university-related retail and student-centered operations.
“Those are really going up quickly,” said Ric Taylor, director of facilities Planning and Management. “After looking at them on paper for well over a year, it’s nice to see them coming out of the ground. We spent a lot of time and effort working on them and trying to make them meld with upper downtown. Wall-to-wall across Route 322, they are exactly 85 feet, which is the distance of the buildings uptown. We wanted to break it up so that each building wasn’t just one mass, but broken up both sides and have different with treatments like brick, siding, and so on and putting in dormers and that sort of thing, rather than just make it look like a very institutional building.”
Taylor doesn’t think the canyon complaint will continue when people realize the entire scope of the project once construction ends. When the new student housing opens, Nair and Wilkinson Halls will be demolished to allow for more open space to be used for parking.
(Photo: Ric Taylor with Purchasing Agent Robin Bish.)
“There’s only a small portion of the two buildings that are actually directly across the street from each other,” said Taylor. “The building on the north side is further down on East Main and the building on the south side is further up. There’s a small area where they are directly across from each other. Once Wilkinson and Nair come down that will all be open space, and you’ll be able to see into (the)campus.”
“I think that the canyon affect has gone away and certainly that’s our hope because we really spent a lot of time talking about that with not only borough officials but also internally, and it was certainly nothing we wanted to create, so it was in our best interest not to do that.”
There will be only one retail component of the first floor of the North Suites by Still Hall, and that is a cross between an 184-seat lecture hall by day, and at night, it will serve as entertainment space for students and the community, displaying second-run movies and occasionally feature comedians. Taylor said the remaining first floor space would address residence hall functions.
“The buildings on the south side of Route 322 closer to Carrier Hall are where we’ll have three retail units,” said Taylor. “Our bookstore is moving from Gemmell Hall, Starbucks is moving from Eagle Commons on Arnold Avenue, and we’ll have a new Denny’s going in. However, it will be a unique formula for Denny’s. It’s something new that they’re doing specifically for college campuses. It’s called the Den rather than Denny’s; the name is shortened, and so is the function of the restaurant. It is not a restaurant where you go in and sit at a booth or table and are waited on. This is where you go up to a counter, place you order, wait for your order, and then it’s up to you if you would rather leave with it or rather stay and eat it in the restaurant.”
Clarion’s Den(ny’s) will be only the second such restaurant in the country, with the other opening in San Diego. Hours are expected to be 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.
“We don’t see it as being in direct competition with any Borough businesses or what not because of the hours and the proximity to campus,” said Taylor. “I don’t think we have a majority of our students leaving campus to go to lunch uptown so this will just be another eating opportunity, just like the Gemmell food court or Eagle Commons Dining Hall. Students will be able to use their Eagle dollars at Den’s just as they would at the dining hall and food court. Chartwells, the university’s contracted food service vendor, purchases the franchises from Denny’s and Starbucks. Chartwells has been with Clarion for decades and recently won a new contract extension.”
The student suites are technically not university-owned buildings but being built and developed by the Clarion University Foundation, Inc. Funded through student housing fees, these types of housing were developed in response to requests from Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education for more private-public partnerships.
More changes in buildings planned
Additional changes are also proposed in the latest edition of the Clarion University Master Plan, including the demolition of Carrier Hall, home of the university’s administrative services located on the corner of Main Street and Arnold Avenue near the start of the new student housing.
“Our Master Plan calls for a variety of things happening from now to year five of the plan,” said Taylor. “One of them does involve the demolition of Carrier Hall. With the renovation of Becht Hall, a number of offices that were scattered throughout the campus are moving into Becht Hall as part of a one-stop center for student business. Offices like the Registrar, Career Center, Health Center, and others are going into Becht Hall, so they will be vacating offices throughout campus. Carrier will be left about half empty, and at the same time, we are looking at moving what is left in Carrier to a remodeled Egbert Hall in the middle of campus near the Carlson Library. We could then take down Carrier Hall and create a park there that will be very attractive, and the end of the new student housing building is where Starbucks will be housed. An outdoor café and park will also allow the public to see up into campus and Eagle Commons and the bell tower. The move of admissions to Becht Hall may also allow the moving of Public Safety offices now located on Thorne Street to the Admissions on Wood Street and the demolition of two small houses.”
In earlier planning, it was decided that the interior of Becht Hall was not structurally sound for a contemporary use, and the interior of the building was completely removed to save all of the historical aspects of the building such as wall treatments for later use. A steel interior skeleton was inserted into the building and concrete floors were added.
Taylor expects the building will be turned back over to the University in early July and certain offices will start moving in during the month of August in a phased-in move.
Another plus for the revived Becht Hall is the use of 42 geo-thermal wells 350 ft. deep that will help with utilities in the building. Buried underground at the site of the former Chandler Dining Hall, Taylor said the geo-thermal wells store the heat from the building in the soil during the summer and reverse the process in the winter and use it to supplement the heat required in the building.
The new student suites on Main Street will also use geo-thermal energy linked to two additional geo-thermal fields.
“We anticipate utility savings with the new buildings and demolition of smaller older buildings,” said Taylor. “Becht Hall will be Silver Leed (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, and Becht is within points of receiving gold certification. The new residence halls are hoping for Silver Leed Status.”
Tippin renovation planned for six phases, 2018 completion
A complete renovation and reimaging of Tippin Natatorium is expected to take two years, finishing in 2018.
The Tippin project is being paid for and managed by the Pennsylvania Department of General Services (DGS) out of Harrisburg. According to Taylor, the project will be phased in six sequences, with the natatorium being built first and then moving on to certain sections of the building.
“The first phase of this project is the construction of a new competitive swimming pool built as an addition to Tippin and on Payne Street. The street will be closed all of the way to Harvey Hall on the east side of the existing gymnasium.”
The gymnasium, which is in need of work, will be converted to an arena in the sense that it will be a bowl concept and will have some viewing boxes on the upper levels, so that you can see into the gym while you’re having snacks from the various concessions that will be in the building.
“We will have an Academic Support Center for student athletes, so we can get them tutoring and whatnot because when you think about it, being a student athlete means you’re going to school, and you have a full-time job. The current pool will become a multi-purpose space,” said Taylor.
“The current pool space will provide space to play basketball, volleyball, and practices,” said Taylor. “We will have pullout artificial turf so that we could do football practices or similar activities, and that’s your thing. It will also be a case that we can have events and award events in that space because you could roll out the grass turf and place tables on he surface.”
At about the same time construction starts for a competitive pool, plans also call for the DGS construction of a new recreational swimming pool at the Student Rec Center. The new recreational pool, funded by student fees, will offer students and the public a “fun” place to visit, according to Taylor.
The arena-style gymnasium will likely continue attracting important games and visitors. The arena style gymnasium will also have lots of options for students. President Karen Whitney previously suggested she would like to not have “butts in bleachers,” and she would rather have bucket seating for the arena.
“Right now the project is designed with bleachers, and it is designed for a certain number of seats as bucket seats, but that will be a question of economics and whether we can afford to do that,” said Taylor. “It’s about $85,000.00 to do just a percentage of the seats as bucket seats.”
The renovation to Tippin and specifically for the new competitive swimming pool and recreational pool will use an extensive amount of glass in both buildings to bring in natural light and promote transparency.
