By Lucas Reilly ’13

Photo by Michelle Oertner ’16

Fed up with those fences circling the quad? You’ll have to wait. They won’t be coming down for another three months.

“The [Quad] project is on schedule with a target completion date of November 21,” Director of Facilities Planning and Construction MaryWilford-Hunt said. “It is also on budget.”

Whiting-Turner, a construction firm, is doing the dirty work.

Last year, Whiting-Turner built Anderson Courtyard and convertedPardee Drive into a brick walkway. The company has worked on over 120 college campuses, a company document said.

Workers recently uprooted the asphalt paths that weaved across the quad. They will soon be replaced with new brick lanes. According to an executive summary, Whiting-Turner will also re-level the quad and replace some patches of the grass with new sod.

Updated storm drains and a new irrigation system are also on Whiting-Turner’s punch list. Sketches of the finished product show that the new Quad will be shaped like an oval.

The Quad project has eliminated 44 parking spaces, according to a Parking Overview provided by Facilities Planning. To make up for the loss, a 42-space parking lot was built on W. Pierce Street below Kirby Sports Center. When the project ends, Lafayette will have increased its parking spaces to 1,544.

The college has been planning to give the quad a facelift since 2009. The idea was first suggested in the Master Plan, a document that promotes new construction projects. One of the plan’s goals was to “create a cohesive campusaesthetic…improve pedestrian safety…and define open spaces.”

The Master Plan is divided into five phases. The Quad project is part of phase one.

Whiting-Turner estimates that the Quad project, which began in late May, will demand over 18,000 hours of labor. When finished, over 1,000 cubic yards of concrete will be poured and approximately 228,000 bricks will be laid. The company will plant 85 new trees and over 1,500 shrubs, which will require 16,830 wheelbarrows of topsoil and nearly three acres of sod.

Wilford-Hunt would not disclose the cost of the Quad project. She said Lafayette “financed a portion” in 2010, and those funds were aided by donations.

McKelvy Gardens
The McKelvy House is also getting a makeover.

Landscapers are trying to restore the house’s historic gardens, mimicking designs from 1914. The college has been planning to renovate the McKelvy gardens since 2005.

“It certainly does seem like they’re making progress,” McKelvy Scholar Meagan Betke ’13 said. “A bunch of plants have gone in lately, and they paved a small parking lot and walkway.”

But the experience hasn’t been entirely pleasant. “It’s a little annoying,” Betke said. “I think they were supposed to have finished already…I do hope they’ll be finished soon.”

Wilford-Hunt isn’t sure when the project will end.

“The McKelvy garden restoration project is being designed in a series of phases,” she said. “The timing of future phases will be dependent on philanthropic funding,” she said.

Arts Campus
The lack of activity at the Arts Campus on North Third Street has made some students wonder whether anything will ever be built.

“The new buildings haven’t been touched at all,” Amy Durcan ’13 said. “[the College] really doesn’t seem focused on it all.”

According to Wilford-Hunt, that’s because work is being done behind the scenes.

“Design efforts continue on the Williams Arts Campus,” she said. “The project is not suspended…we are in the process of analyzing site issues, implications to design and various facade alternatives.”

When finished, the arts campus will become home to the theater and film and media departments. According to a college press release, the arts campus should open in fall of 2013.

Completed and Unfinished
Projects
Construction on the Grossman House finished over the summer. The new residence hall houses 25 students interested in global issues.

A three-story apartment building at the corner of March and Cattell Street was also finished over the summer. The building—called 512 March St—houses 31 students in nine suites.

But not every project has had as much luck. Plans to build a new college store across from Wawa are currently on life support.

“The College store has not yet been started simply due to the state of economy,” Wilford-Hunt said. She added that the college may use the space for a different building.

“At this point, the site is ready for virtually any planned development. The college is weighing various…options.”