Archived Edition: October 26, 2004 | Back to Current	Jul 31, 2010

New Stetson plans released
Hayley Wynn - MANAGING EDITOR

The latest version of the plans for the Stetson-Sawyer building project was presented and met with widespread acclaim both at the faculty meeting on Wednesday and during Trustees’ weekend. Although still in their early stages, plans for a new quad where Sawyer now stands are taking shape, flanked by two buildings of faculty offices and a renovated Stetson with a library addition on the back.

“They were jazzed,” President Schapiro said at the faculty meeting, describing the Trustees’ reaction to the plans. Others echoed Schapiro’s assessment: “The current plans have been well received by faculty, staff, students and members of the Board of Trustees,” said Provost Cappy Hill.

“Reaction from students, alumni and community members has been very positive so far,” said Craig Olshan ’05, a student member of the Stetson-Sawyer committee who has been with the project since the beginning. “The project has been characterized by many as a ‘no brainer’ – that is to say, it is obviously a good idea and a clear improvement over present circumstances.”

The plans include the construction of two faculty office buildings with classrooms and public spaces, located on the north and south sides of Sawyer, as early as 2006. Renovations to Stetson are slated to begin in 2007, if all goes according to schedule. These renovations will include the construction of a new library, in place of the current maze of faculty offices extending off the original structure.

Once the new library is complete, and materials from Sawyer have been moved into it, Sawyer will be demolished and the area where it now stands will become an open green space, creating a new quad. The basement of Sawyer will remain under the quad as storage space for the library. The restoration of the basement will be the final stage of construction and is scheduled to conclude in 2011.

Some concern has been voiced over the possible overlap of the beginning of Stetson-Sawyer and the conclusion of the new student center construction, and the co-chairs of the committee acknowledged that too much overlap between the two projects would be severely detrimental to the campus. “We want to be sensitive as to when we start this building… the campus can only take so much disruption.” said David Pilachowski, co-chair of the committee and College librarian, also noting the current lack of campus green space due to the closure of Baxter Lawn. Michael Brown, the other co-chair and professor of anthropology/sociology, acknowledged that the beginning of the project may in fact be pushed back. “It wouldn’t surprise me if it ended up being six to eight months delayed,” he said.

Although the general concept behind these plans has been in place since last fall, the architects have been working with the Stetson-Sawyer committee to further develop the project, mostly working on “things that people won’t see,” Pilachowski said.

The architects took a “crash course in Williams,” Pilachowski said, spending time on campus and going on tours of study spaces around campus with student members of the Stetson-Sawyer committee to get a better sense of how students work. Pilachowski emphasized how the balance of solitary and informal collaborative spaces in the unified science center and Goodrich was a theme to be continued in the new buildings.

Although the fine points of the buildings have been refined, overall the plans have been “amazingly consistent,” Brown said. Details such as the number of classrooms in the buildings are being ironed out. The north and south buildings have been moved back from Sawyer, in order to allow for greater clearance between them, which has actually made the spacing “better than originally envisioned,” Brown said, since the north building will now be on a line with Bernard Music Center and the new student center.

This also allows more flexibility in the project’s execution, if construction is delayed for any reason it will allow the faculty buildings and Sawyer to coexist, although “no one really thinks that a likely scenario,” Brown said.

Plans for the outer façades of the new buildings have not yet been finalized, but some details have been discussed. “The architects are starting to play with some ideas…for them it’s really designed from the inside out,” Brown said. “The academic buildings will really be driven by the fact that every office needs a window, which sets a lot of limits,” he said. Brown suggested that the architects were mainly looking at a design of brick and stone, designed to preserve continuity with the existing architecture, particularly Stetson, Chapin and the Frosh Quad buildings, which were all designed by the same architect.

Even with these new buildings surrounding the quad, the architects intend to keep Stetson as the focus of the purposed space. “It’s unusual to find architects who are willing to come in and agree to build two buildings that won’t be the focal point,” Pilachowski said. Still, the architects build in a modern style. “It’s very clean, not fru-fru,” Brown said, describing their method.

“The architects have been really successful in integrating the new buildings with the existing ones, while creating a central focus for the campus in the new quadrangle that will connect Stetson to Chapin/Baxter Lawn,” said Aaron Helfand ’05, a student member of the Stetson-Sawyer committee.

In addition to the new buildings, the architects have been working on plans for the renovations of the space inside Stetson. On the main floor, the plans are to have a few seminar rooms, as well as turning the current faculty lounge into a reading room that would be open 24-hours. The downstairs area is still in question, as is how to maximize the space that is currently used for stacks in the back of the building.

The Office of Information Technology will also be shifting some of its operations into the renovated Stetson. “A technology support center in the complex will enable us to support faculty and students on the north side of campus better and enhance the use of technology in teaching and learning,” said Dinny Taylor, chief technology officer.

“We hope to have a critical mass of facilities and staff to create a project development center where faculty and students can collaborate with people from our instructional technology group as well as have desktop support,” she said. “A technology support center that is located near the majority of the faculty will encourage them to work with us more than they might if they need to walk over to Jesup.”

The current price tag on the project is still subject to an updated cost evaluation by the architects. At the faculty meeting, it was announced that the College has set a $105 million cap for the project.

“Next steps include wider discussion with the community, more detailed cost estimates, and more detailed designs for the two academic buildings,” Hill said. Brown and Pilachowski hope to hold a community forum to discuss the plans before Thanksgiving.