Former Ann Arbor News reporter/columnist and current EMU PR/writer guy Geoff Larcom sent me an email suggesting that I post a link to this Focus EMU article, “Swing space plan for Pray-Harrold, Science Complex in development.” It runs through the basic plans for what to do about space for offices, teaching, etc. for everyone who is impacted by the Mark-Jefferson ongoing project and the up-coming Pray-Harrold project.
And yes, the project is indeed upcoming: the projected start date now when faculty will be moved out of the building and construction will begin will be the end of the winter 2010 term. Looking back at the original Pray-Harrold pool, it looks like it’ll be between MathGeek and Peter.
Here’s a quote from the Larcom article that kind of runs-down the time-line:
If all goes as planned, the building would reopen for the fall semester of 2011. IT staff on the first floor would be affected only during the calendar year 2010, and would move back into the building once first-floor renovations are completed in August 2010. But the rest of those faculty and staff who use Pray-Harrold face more than a year of temporary, new classrooms and offices at another location on campus.
That fall 2011 date/prediction is definitely a variable. I am on this Pray-Harrold committee, and I think its fair to say that fall 2011 will only happen if there are no problems and everything goes just fantastic. And that seems unlikely.
I don’t know exactly where everyone in Pray-Harrold is going, but I do know that a lot of the faculty/staff offices will be in Hoyt Hall, which is one of the tower dorms. On the plus-side, there should be a fair amount of room and lots of bathrooms. Some of my colleagues were joking about the ability to shower at work. On the down-side, I don’t think Hoyt is air-conditioned and it’s way the hell over on the other side of campus and far far away from most of the classroom buildings.
My hopes are strong. Still shooting for the 2011 date.
Econ is going to the third floor of King. Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology are going to the fourth floor of King. I took a walk around there yesterday and it honestly looks like a bomb went off on the fourth floor. Ceiling tiles falling, water dripping, mold growing (seriously). Sometime in the past I think I heard that King was going to be condemned. Does anyone remember that? I really hope they finish on schedule. I doubt it, but I hope so.
Well, I’m operating under the assumption that they’re going to clean these swing spaces up at least a little bit before people move in. I sure hope I’m right about that….