Originally built as temporary housing in the 1970s, the Central Campus apartments are receiving their last upgrades for the next decade.
This summer, the University will complete interior enhancements on apartments as part of the Central Campus enhancement plan that began in Summer 2010, said Joe Gonzalez, dean for residential life. Past upgrades included additions to the campus, such as the creation of Devil’s Bistro and Mill Village, as well as external upgrades, such as repainting the exterior of Central Campus buildings and creating new walkways. The current renovations are focused only on the apartments themselves and invole interior upgrades, such as new floors and paint jobs.
The work on Central Campus this summer will cost approximately $5 million, Gonzalez said, adding that the entire Central Campus enhancement project sums up to approximately $14 million.
“It was work that was due,” Gonzalez said. “I mean, these apartments existed for 35 years and it was time for the maintenance to be done.”
The interiors of the apartments between Anderson Street and Alexander Avenue were renovated in past summers with new carpets, bathroom doors, interior paint and fencing, among other changes, Gonzalez said. The rest of the apartments will be updated this summer with wood vinyl floors, new interior paint, new bathroom sinks and vanities, stainless steel hoods and refinished cabinets in the kitchen.
Gonzalez added that some of the apartments will also be redesigned, transforming some one-bedroom apartments into two-bedroom suites to accommodate students who don’t want to share a room—particularly seniors. Work will also continue to replace the outside stairwells on Central Campus—a project that also started three summers ago. Three-quarters of the stairwells will be replaced by the Fall.
The renovations are part of a broader initiative to improve the quality of life for students, along with the new housing model and the introduction of sororities and fraternities to Central Campus, said Vice President for student affairs, Larry Moneta.
“We don’t make renovations for the sake of renovations,” Moneta said.
An additional project involving the cleaning of the duct systems in Central Campus apartments, which began in March, is expected to be completed in June, Gonzalez said. The cleaning project began in response to many students reporting allergic reactions and breathing difficulties in the apartments.
Ashley Tsai, Trinity ’13, said she had trouble breathing in her Pace Avenue apartment. She reported the issue to Housing, Dining and Residential Life multiple times throughout Fall 2012, and after seeing no conclusive action taken by the University, decided to pay out of pocket for her ducts to be cleaned last January, which resolved the issues. HDRL sent someone to clean her apartment in April.
“It was a huge problem—I was sick all the time and I couldn’t concentrate on my work,” Tsai said. “It just frustrated me that there was all this money to spend on other things like expanding Wallace Wade... but we can’t even build these apartments for students to live in.”
Moneta noted that complaints did not serve as the impetus to the various Central Campus renovations.
“It wasn’t so much complaints, but our sense of excellence and what we like to provide to our students,” Moneta said.
The ongoing renovations are separate from those in the University’s strategic plan that was approved by the Board of Trustees in 2006. The strategic plan aimed to redevelop Central Campus into a “vibrant intellectual and residential community.” Renovations were delayed indefinitely due to the economic downturn in 2008.
“When the economy changed, we realized we had sort of held off doing work on the Central Campus apartments, and we realized it was just time,” Moneta said.
The University hopes to pursue the more extensive changes to Central Campus outlined in the strategic plan—estimated to require $350 million—in the future, but there are no concrete plans currently, Gonzalez noted.
Moneta added that there are many competing projects, and the University had to make decisions about its priorities. Due to preliminary changes already made to Central Campus, administrators said it was possible to settle for the less costly upgrades.
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