Renovations to begin on Rollins

Planned changes include a pedestrian oriented entrance and enclosed balconies.

By Elliot Njus

Published Oct. 2, 2007

A $36 million project will renovate and update Gillett and Hudson residence halls and Rollins Commons over a period of about 32 months.

Residential Life Director Frankie Minor said the renovations would include interior and exterior improvements, as well as updates to the building's infrastructure.

Minor said the most dramatic change could be the ground floor entrance to the building. The hall has two entrances that open up to circular driveways on Virginia Avenue and Rollins Street.

"It's a very vehicular-oriented set-up," Minor said. "What we're trying to do is make it more pedestrian-oriented."

Minor said university officials have discussed closing Rollins Street to traffic permanently, but he also said nothing has been decided.

He said the pedestrian-oriented entrance could be compared to the northeast entrance to Johnston Hall.

"It's a very welcome and inviting entrance," he said. "We're trying to determine if we can do a similar thing at Rollins, but we've got different topography to work with."

The buildings house up to 497 students, but would tentatively hold only 420 residents after the renovations. Minor said the decrease in occupancy was planned for in the Residential Life Master Plan, which outlines all of the department's renovation and construction plans through 2018.

"Part of it is increased demand for single rooms," he said. "If you look at the current floor plans of Hudson or Gillett, there's not a designed single in there."

Some of the rooms are doubles with only a single occupant.

Minor said the style of the rooms would stay the same.

"We're not going to be upgrading to suite style," he said. "It's going to be maintaining community-style restrooms but upgrading the finishes, the fixtures and the infrastructure."

Minor said the updates would also allow more rooms to meet conditions required under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The infrastructure updates include electrical services, elevators and air conditioning. The halls will be converted to central air conditioning.

"One of the concepts we're looking at is, rather than removing the balconies as we have at Hatch and Schurz, enclosing the balconies," Minor said. "We still don't lose that little bit of square footage but we deal with issues of accessibility and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning system)."

Minor said open balconies, like the ones the halls have now, would "wreak havoc" on the central air conditioning.

He said changes to the Rollins dining hall would be minimal.

"The Rollins renovation is primarily looking at the basement and ground level because the upstairs level is part of Campus Dining Services," he said.

Minor said the dining facility was renovated several years ago.

According to the MU Campus Facilities Web site, the university will place advertisements in October 2008. Bids for the project will be due in November.

Hudson residence hall will close after the fall 2008 semester and reopen in fall 2010. Gillett residence hall and Rollins Commons will close after fall 2009. The Rollins Dining Hall will reopen in fall 2010, and the rest of Rollins Commons and Gillett residence hall would reopen in fall 2011.