Plans for campus renovations are moving forward as the new year begins at Dickinson College.
In 2008 there was a master plan for the entire campus with the goal to modernize as many buildings as possible, explained Ken Shultes ’89, director of facilities management.
“The highest priority was led by the quality of student life studies, which led to [plans for construction on] Rector, residence halls and Kline,” he said.
The construction of an addition to the Rector Science Complex is currently active and expected to be completed in May, just in time for faculty to get settled in before the 2013-2014 school year, explained Shultes. The plans include over 20,000 square feet of space that will actively be used by professors and students.
In February, two additional projects will begin: the expansion of the Kline center and the construction of the Durden Center, a training facility that will be located at Biddle Field in honor of President William Durden ’77. According to Shultes, both projects are expected to take 12 to 14 months to complete.
The expansion of the Kline Center will include a larger fitness center, a five-court squash center, a café and an outdoor sport court, according to the Dickinson website. This expansion will be built over the current location of the Kline Pond and Depot.
According to the Dickinson website, the Durden training center will include men and women’s locker rooms for lacrosse, football, field hockey, coaches, officials and visiting teams. It will also include a strength training room, free-weight room, sports medicine facilities, laundry and equipment room, a team meeting and event room, and an exhibition area to honor Dickinson athletics.
As Dickinson moves into the spring semester, plans for the construction of the new residence hall, currently un-named, will begin to move forward.
“We hope to start building the new residence hall in late spring, but the funding isn’t there yet; we have to wait until the trustee meeting to get the final yes, ” explained Shultes. “The new residence hall will be where Malcolm and the ROTC house [are] now and [will require us to] take them down. We want students from all three classes to live there because there will be different suites with bathrooms as well as doubles and singles.”
According to the Dickinson website, the new residence hall will be more than 38,000 square feet and is expected to house between 114 to 120 students. The website also explains that the project is aiming for platinum certification from the Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, joining Rector and Admissions in the ranks of campus buildings with this distinction.
Shultes said that he has heard a great deal of positive feedback about the projects. “Generally people are very excited about it,” he noted. “We have had input from students, faculty and staff; it was a very inclusive process, which led to people being very happy.”
