Construction Update: MHC's Big Dig

An artist's rendering of the Unified Science Center.

Two of Mount Holyoke's major upcoming construction projects (the Unified Science Center and art building projects) will soon be under way, and the College is in the midst of intensive planning for the third, the renovation and expansion of the Blanchard Campus Center. The hum of bulldozers and the banging of jackhammers will join the chirping of birds and peeping of frogs on MHC's campus as harbingers of spring. Ground breaking for the science project is scheduled for early May, and the art building ground breaking will be in early March. A ceremony launching the two projects is set for March 31.

The Unified Science Center
This is the most far-reaching and complex of the three projects. The new science complex, designed by Einhorn Yaffee Prescott architects of Albany and Boston, will provide 116,000 gross square feet of new construction and renovated space. A new multistory, 38,000-square-foot building, connecting current buildings Clapp, Shattuck, Cleveland, and Carr, will serve as the nexus for the science complex, allowing for greater interaction among the sciences. It will feature a 3,000-square-foot, three-story atrium providing a gathering place for all members of the community and benefiting the entire campus. Carr Laboratories and Shattuck Hall, built in 1955 and 1932, respectively, and totaling 78,000 square feet, will be renovated (Carr completely and Shattuck to a lesser extent) so that students can explore the sciences in modern classrooms and laboratories.

An artist's rendering of the interior of the Unified Science Center atrium.

The completed complex will provide up-to-date teaching and research laboratories, classrooms, and offices to meet the departmental needs of biological sciences, biochemistry, chemistry, physics, and computer science. The departmental and faculty offices for English and politics, currently located in Clapp, will move to Shattuck Hall, allowing Clapp to be fully dedicated to the sciences.

Over Thanksgiving and January Term, preliminary steps were taken to prepare the construction site for the new science center. The dean of the faculty's office and science faculty are currently involved in a detailed study of space moves and logistics, determining where classes and labs will be held during the construction process. Construction is scheduled to start in early May and will be done in phases.

Phase one will be the new addition, which should be completed by the summer of 2002. The complete interior renovation of Carr will be undertaken in phase two, starting in January of next year with completion by January 2003. The final phase of the project, scheduled to begin in summer 2002 and to be completed in summer 2003, will involve the less extensive renovation to Shattuck. Construction documents are currently being prepared, and requests for proposals will soon be sent to construction managers.

The Art Building and Art Museum Project
The art building renovation and new construction project, designed by the Hillier Group of Princeton, New Jersey, is scheduled to begin next month. It includes new classrooms, studio space, and advanced imaging, design, and research technology, as well as expanded exhibition space for the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. On the first floor, new construction will add 3,700 square feet of additional gallery space to the art museum. The museum's storage area will also be renovated and expanded to relieve serious congestion in its current space, in addition to making the collection more accessible.

As a result of new construction and the reconfiguration of some of the current galleries, new spaces will be provided for seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century art in addition to modern and contemporary art, much of which has remained in storage for the last decade because of limited exhibition space. Space will also be dedicated to a study gallery/classroom, to be used primarily by students and programmed collaboratively by the museum staff and art department faculty.

On the second and third floors of the building, the art department will gain a total of 22,000 square feet of renovated space. The second floor will be reconfigured to accommodate a visual studies lab; expanded space for the slide collection (150,000 slides) that will incorporate state-of-the-art image preparation; a reference library; and two new mediated classrooms. Art history classes will benefit from improved access to digitized imagery and a variety of online resources. A section of the area that currently houses the art library will be developed for studio majors to work on their senior projects in preparation for the senior art majors' exhibition. The art library has been moved from the second floor to Williston Library so that the entire art library can be consolidated. The film studies program will also relocate to the library.

On the third floor, the sculpture classrooms will be completely reconfigured to complement the existing three studios, providing for greater flexibility as well as space and equipment for work on large-scale projects. A new elevator and central stairway will connect all floors of the art building, making it possible to move effortlessly between the art museum and the art department.
The construction documents for the art building project are now completed, and portions of the project are out to bid. Exterior work on the new addition will begin in March, and workers will move inside when students leave for summer break.

Construction on the upper floors of the art building will be done over the summer, and the art collections should be moved back in the fall of 2001. “Pageant Field [the area between amphitheater and Lower Lake Road] will look quite disheveled for the duration of the project,” says John Bryant, director of facilities management. “When the art building is completed, we will restore the field to its former splendor.”

Blanchard Campus Center
The College is currently working with architects Miller, Dyer, Spears of Boston in the design development stage of a complete renovation/addition project that will increase the vitality of the Blanchard Campus Center. The goal of the Blanchard project is to transform the interior into a brighter and more vital center. Current plans call for the building to gain natural light from a skylight above a central atrium connecting all three levels. The renovation will provide a well-lit, integrated, mall-like venue for dining, entertainment, and social activity. Culinary elements will be situated on the lower floor of the building, which now houses the bookstore. Varied food choices will be available, and the space will be converted to a performance venue for concerts and dances.

The middle level will function as the building's “Main Street.” It will include a cyber café, coffee bar, art gallery, game room, College store, information counter, and mailroom. The radio station, student programs offices, and meeting rooms will be on the upper floor. And rather than the current main entrance “blockade,” the new plan incorporates an entryway into the main space and atrium with a grand staircase. Additions to the building will expand it to the south and the north and provide views of the lake.

The Blanchard project is still in the planning stage and has not yet received trustee approval. Upon that approval, construction will begin on the additions in fall 2001, and the interior renovations will start in January 2002. The project will necessitate eliminating the tennis courts and moving Lower Lake Road.