The new Farmer School of Business (FSB) isn't the only school at Miami University getting a facelift, as residence halls across campus and Upham and Laws Halls will see renovations in the coming years.
Right now these renovations are in the planning stages, but Vice President for Finance David Creamer said residence hall renovations, including the addition of new residence halls, could start as early as next year.
"The earliest date that we anticipate for construction is November of 2010, with the use of the buildings beginning in the fall of 2012," Creamer said. "The buildings are reaching a point where we need to make some improvements, and we're determining the best way to do that."
Robert Keller, university architect and campus planner, agreed more residence halls will be necessary on campus and that construction could begin in the next few years. Though not necessary for the incoming first-year class, Keller thinks they will be needed within the next few years.
"It's still in the early planning stages," Keller said. "I would expect that there will need to be some new residence halls, but how many we don't know. Maybe two or three new residence halls at a minimum. We need to build some new facilities."
Keller added the new residence halls would have to be built first so Miami would still be able to maintain bed capacity while renovating existing halls, and that the new halls built would vary from the typical community restroom concept.
"There will be a different mix of how many beds are in each room," Keller said. "We'll upgrade the heating and air conditioning and reconfigure any spaces that could be used more efficiently."
Creamer said the university has high hopes for residence hall renovations.
"Our goal is for spaces to all be provided with air conditioning," Creamer said, adding that bathrooms and other common areas would be redesigned to better accommodate student needs. "We tend to see the amount of square feet per student tends to grow."
The need for more classroom space at Miami has also grown and the addition of the FSB building opened spaces in Upham and Laws for renovation, which could start as early as next year, according to Creamer.
He said while not all floors of these halls would be renovated, the floors that are being renovated would be completely redone.
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Keller said the first two levels of Laws would be renovated and the third and fourth floors may be renovated later in a second phase, while only the lower level of Upham would be renovated.
He said Laws would now be used to accommodate sections from university libraries, including the science library collection currently housed in Hughes Laboratories and the psychology, business and engineering library collections currently at King Library.
"I don't envision this to be a disruption to departments," Creamer said of the departments housed in Laws and Upham.
Because the new FSB building has freed up a lot of space in Laws and Upham, some departments from the College of Arts and Sciences will move into these spaces, but Keller said the specific departments to move have not been finalized.
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