By Juliann Guiffre, Features Co-Editor
The new Garden apartments will be completed by the end of this semester, with capacity rising from 96 people to 108 to accommodate for renovations taking place in Blanche soon after.
The new Garden apartments will have 12 apartments with kitchens and 12 with the suite style living; all will have new geo-thermal air conditioning, which Ethan Seidel, vice president of administration and finance, says will save the school money in utility bills. The project is projected to cost $4 to $4.5 million after everything is completed.
“I think we’re going to come in on the low end of that range,” said Seidel, “but you never know what the drillers are going to run into or what problems will arise.”
Seidel said that after adding about 18 more kitchens in the new North Village apartments, they wanted more diversity in the Garden apartments. The suite style apartments are also less costly.
Sophomore Megan Hildebrand thinks that most juniors and seniors would prefer having a kitchen to open up the options for food. Senior Jessica Dittman, who has lived in both the old Garden apartments and the new North Village, disagrees.
“With my schedule I tended not to use [the kitchen] to cook anyways. I really only needed to fridge. I think most students will be happy without the kitchen… since most don’t have it for two years anyways, they won’t really miss it,” Dittman said.
The old Garden apartments had been built in 1975, and Seidel felt the style was very dated. Dittman added that the lighting was very poor; “there was one dim light for the living room and in the bedrooms there was one rather dark lamp.” So while Gardens wasn’t at the top of the list for renovations, it certainly needed them.
“The renovations to Garden apartments to upgrade the buildings and address some of the longer term facilities issues there will certainly help to make that housing more attractive and comfortable to the students again, “ said Michael Robbins, director of Residence Life.
The construction on the Garden apartments is part of a larger master plan to renovate many of the residential buildings, presumably ending with the conversion of a portion of Rouzer Hall to offices, space for clubs and other school organizations.
Robbins also thinks that “it is a very encouraging sign that McDaniel College has entered into an aggressive housing renovation plan and is devoting resources to back it up.”
Seidel said that around 1987 the school came up with a master plan to renovate several academic buildings, including the addition of Academic Hall, Hoover Library, and the campus walkway system.
“After those projects where completed, President Coley determined that our next master plan should focus on residential space,” Seidel said.
Soon after the plan was established, they realized that in order to renovate the current buildings they would need to build a residential new space to hold the over flow of students.
“The second phase of North Village was 100% dedicated to allowing us to renovate the old residential halls,” said Seidel. They knew the construction on the new North Village apartments wouldn’t be done until halfway through the fall 2007 semester, so Seidel said that the logical choice was to let students sign up for these apartments and let them live in the Garden apartments while construction was being finished.
“Everything just fell into place. The new North Village apartments would hold 90 students and the old Garden apartments held 96,” said Seidel. “That’s how Gardens became the first residential hall we are renovating.”
The plan is to start renovations on Blanche Ward Hall soon after those in Garden are completed and make enough progress over the summer to have students occupy one wing of the building in the fall. Again, Seidel said the numbers just work out; there is enough room in the new Garden apartments to empty the back wing of Blanche. Several new rooms will be added to Blanche but won’t add to the capacity of the building because of the placement of a lounge on each floor.
According to Robbins, discussions have begun for work to be done in McDaniel Hall once Blanche is complete.
McDaniel borrowed $20 million in the fall of 2006 which helped to fund North Village, the new fitness center and Gardens.
“Overlaid on that is the money from the Carpe Diem campaign. Both have allowed us to keep on going,” said Seidel. “The money for Blanche is there, but after that we don’t know. We have to keep fundraising.”