Life in Maxey Hall is slowly returning to normal as construction on the building moves beyond its most intensive stages. Builders are weeks ahead of schedule on the 11,000-square foot addition and renovators are meeting with faculty and staff members to decide on new furniture and to plan for displaced professors to move back to the building during the summer.

“There have been a few disruptions throughout the project but the building users have generally been very understanding and recognize that progress is sometimes inconvenient,” said Dan Park, Director of the Physical Plant.

Construction teams broke ground on extensions to the 34 year-old building in summer 2009 after the college issued a $5.2 million bond for a number of repairs and expansions, including the addition of four classroom spaces and three student lounge areas. Though the process has met few problems over the past months, faculty, staff and students have had to adjust to a number of inconveniences.

Psychology Chair Wally Herbranson, whose primary research involves pigeons, was forced to suspend testing when construction entered particularly noisy stages and is looking forward to resuming his experiments now that lab facilities have been renovated to accommodate a new batch of pigeons, which will be arriving in the next couple weeks.

“I had to relocate my test pigeons because I couldn’t in good conscience keep them in Maxey with all the noise of construction,” Herbranson said.

Professor of Sociology Bill Bogard, who is acting as the faculty liaison on the project, thanked the construction teams for helping the process proceed with as minimal distraction as possible.

“The renovation has gone smoothly, thanks to the planning and consideration of the construction teams,” said Bogard. “We have worked around issues of noise, construction debris and ongoing work in existing interior spaces and adapted pretty successfully.  It will be very nice when the work is done and everyone is able to move back into the building later this summer.”

A number of professors whose offices had been housed in Maxey were temporarily relocated to Olin Hall’s recently renovated East wing for the 2009-2010 academic year and will benefit from the building’s numerous upgrades when they move back into their former spaces this summer.

As well as the additions of new classrooms, offices and research areas, Maxey Hall will follow in the footsteps of other recently renovated buildings on campus by incorporating new technological resources.

“We will all be happy when the job is finished,” continued Bogard. “Every classroom in the building will have smart technology installed.  There are several new student study areas, a revamped computer lab, and a remodeled main office and faculty lounge.”

When the improved Maxey debuts to students for the fall 2010 semester, every department in the building will have its own workrooms for student-faculty projects.

“I think all of us in the building have been pleased with the way construction is going and look forward to having a great new facility to teach in,” said Bogard.