As spring weather arrives in Williamsburg and the ground begins to thaw, construction on projects new and old begins on campus. While some current projects will not be complete until 2022, others will be open to students as early as the fall 2018 semester, such as Landrum Hall.
The Flat Hat spoke with Director of Facilities, Planning, Design and Construction Jeff Brancheau to get an inside scoop on all of the construction happening on campus, from residence halls to academic buildings and artistic spaces.
Landrum Hall
Landrum Hall, a traditionally upperclassman residence hall near Chandler and Barrett Halls, has been unavailable since the end of the spring 2017 semester, when renovation began on the inside of the building. This project involved gutting the majority of the building’s exterior, adding new windows, creating a new entrance on the side of the building facing the Sunken Garden and upgrading all of the rooms to suite-style bathrooms.
Another feature of this $19 million project is the first floor’s common space, with a balcony on the second and third floors. Each hall will also feature a kitchenette and renovated spaces for studying and socializing. According to Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Maggie Evans, the residence hall will be open to students for the fall 2018 semester and will predominantly be occupied by juniors and seniors.
Integrated Wellness Center
The Integrated Wellness Center, another of the College of William and Mary’s ongoing construction projects, has a budget of $19 million as well. Once complete, the building will house existing student health resources such as nutritionists, massage therapists and spaces for peer health educators. The IWC, which once complete will also be known as the McLeod-Tyler Center for Health and Wellness after two of the building’s donors, will also feature new health services such as acupuncture.
According to Associate Vice President for Health and Wellness Kelly Crace, the IWC is one part of the College’s effort to refocus the conversation on health by making it a topic of discussion with a building in a prominent spot on campus, right next to the Sadler Center. Crace said that he hopes the building will spark a new interest in maintaining and celebrating health.
Construction began following Commencement ceremonies in the spring of 2017 and involved demolishing several of the Lodges, which served as upperclassman housing. Now, Brancheau said construction should be complete before the 2018-19 academic year.
West Utility Plant
Another project that has been in the works for several months is the West Utility Plant, which once complete will go on the corner of Ukrop Way next to Adair Hall. Currently, part of the sidewalk on that corner is roped off as early construction begins. This building will add utility capacity, and Brancheau says it will also help the College be more energy efficient, as it will help it redistribute energy across campus.
This project comes with a $30.2 million budget and will have an all-glass exterior, so that students will be able to see the boilers and workers inside when they walk by. Brancheau also said that no major construction will be visible until the end of this semester, but the project is scheduled to be completed by May 2019.
Fine and Performing Arts Complex
The Fine and Performing Arts Complex is the result of Virginia General Assembly funding that allocated money to renovate and expand the College’s current spaces for theater, dance and music. The first part of this project involves renovating the back half of Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall that touches Andrews Hall. The theater and performance spaces in the affected part of PBK will be relocated to existing buildings in the Dillard Complex as well as a new building that is in progress there.
The total budget for this project is $118 million, and it will also involve a new music building that will be connected to PBK via a tunnel. This new music building will be the future home to classes currently offered in Ewell Hall, which one day is set to be demolished according to the Campus Master Plan. The new complex will also house dance classes and performances currently found in Adair Hall.
While construction is set to begin on the first part in late summer and Brancheau estimates that will take almost a year, construction on the new wing will begin around the same time but will finish in December 2020. While construction on PBK is underway, Andrews Hall will remain fully operational.
Alumni House
After donations to this project, design is underway to renovate and extend the Alumni House to offer a new event space that will host up to 400 people and can be divided into separate rooms. The design on this project is not yet complete, but Brancheau said it should be finalized by the end of March 2018, and construction should begin in May.
The $20.6 million budget all comes from donations, and the project is expected to be completed in November 2019. The alumni who contributed to this project said that the building does not currently meet the needs of the College’s alumni.
Integrated Science Center 4
The fourth and final part of the Integrated Science Center complex is in the design phase, and once complete, will sit in the green space where Millington Hall once stood. Brancheau said that while the design phase will take one year and comes with a budget of $8 million, he believes the designer will do a good job of tying all of the buildings together and adding features unique to the departments this building will house.
As of now, the project has a final budget of $73 million and will provide classrooms and office spaces for the math, computer science and kinesiology departments. Following proposals for an engineering design program at previous Board of Visitors meetings, Brancheau said it is also likely that this new program will be incorporated in ISC4.
Construction will begin on this building in November 2019 and is set to be complete in March 2022.
Muscarelle Museum of Art
When the Muscarelle Museum of Art recently unveiled two new exhibits “Women with Vision” and “In the Light of Caravaggio,” it announced that these would be the last new exhibits before the museum’s renovation.
According to Brancheau, a concept study was done to determine whether the interior of the building should be renovated or if the building should be completely demolished and rebuilt. Following a presentation to the BOV, the College decided that it would be better to opt for a complete demolition and rebuild. Now, the College is working through proposed costs to determine whether or not this is a reasonable option.
“In the construction world, [these things] are very fluid,” Brancheau said.
This project is also donor funded and would result in a building of approximately 50,000-60,000 square feet.
One proposed feature for the new museum would be a frame shop, where the museum’s employees could create period-accurate frames for the artwork.
Athletics Facilities at Busch Field
Busch Field houses the athletics facilities and playing spaces for sports, including the varsity field hockey team and sports clubs. With a $2.5 million budget, the College will add new locker rooms and seating spaces for the women’s athletic program there.
Brancheau said that construction on this project will run from fall 2018 to fall 2019, and it will add a 3,000-square-foot building to the complex.
Sadler Center
With a proposed expansion that would add 46,000 square feet to the building, the College is now waiting to proceed with the formal design process for an expansion to Sadler Center. This expansion would be on the side of the building facing the new IWC and The Daily Grind and would add new spaces for students and offices for administrators currently housed in Campus Center.
The design process comes with a budget of approximately $300,000, and a final budget for the project does not yet exist. Brancheau said that the design process will begin this summer and take about one year to complete.
One Tribe Place
After months of construction work to address damage done by water leakage in the former hotel’s 1984 wing, Brancheau said the College is now moving toward the process of preserving the area for possible reuse — or “mothballing” — the back wing of the hotel, where it will sit ready for future construction.
This process will begin in April 2018 and will involve addressing electricity, HVAC systems and fire protection in this wing.
In the future, it is possible the College will renovate spaces currently unusable due to water and mold damage, such as the ballroom in the basement and the restaurant located in the front portion of what is now a residence hall.
When the College first bought this building, due diligence was not performed in inspections, as the hotel was still operating, so water damage was not initially discovered.
Accessibility Construction
Following the Americans with Disabilities Act, the College is in the process of installing ADA-compliant features to buildings across campus, such as adding an elevator to Adair Hall. Additionally, the elevators in Landrum Hall were not previously ADA compliant, but when the residence hall opens in the fall, the elevators will be larger to accommodate students in wheelchairs.
This construction also involves creating a pathway around the Sunken Garden on its west side near the Crim Dell to account for wheelchairs and better paving a path between the back of Washington Hall and Landrum Hall.
Another proposed accessibility project, Brancheau said, would involve rebuilding the path behind Earl Gregg Swem Library to go in a zigzag formation to render it less steep.
