Pomona, CUC Construction Intensifies

By Andrew McDavid
Editor-in-Chief

Through an ornate dance of demolitions, excavations, renovations and nomadic departments, Pomona College will end up with three new buildings and 40 new parking spaces by summer 2006. In the process, the consortium will gain a new student service center.

Anyone wandering through Pomona's campus in the past year has seen the flurry of construction along 6th street. Beginning with the gutting and remodeling of Pearsons Hall, Pomona is currently renovating the Crookshank English and Classics building and constructing a new biological science building. Activity along 6th will intensify when construction begins of a two-and-a-half deck, 130-space subterranean parking garage, with 12,000 square feet of multiuse office space on top of the garage.

The administrative section of the Information Technology Services department, currently occupying the offices adjoined to Seeley G. Mudd Science Library, will be the building's first occupant, along with duplication services. The edifice will be built on the 90-space “keyhole” parking lot, located west of the faculty house and north of 7th street. The building is projected to cost $6.2 million. Construction begins as soon as classes end, and will continue through January 2005, when the multiuse building and the biological science building are slated for completion.

Next, in close proximity to the office building, will be a new CUC student services center. When completed, it will house Monsour Counseling Center, Chicano/Latino Student Affairs and Student Medical Services, whose aging buildings will all eventually be razed. The Faculty House located on College Way will be demolished to make room for it, and College Way will be realigned.

The student service center is slated for completion in June 2005, and will be funded by contributions from all members of the consortium. Pomona College Director of Campus Planning and Maintenance James Hansen says that the budget will be set by the presidents of the different institutions.

This will allow the demolition of the Baxter Medical Building and Pomona College Dean of Students Ann Quinley's house, both located near the Andrew/Millikan science building. After the ground is cleared, two academic buildings will go up, with a combined capacity of 87,000 square feet. In one building will live the Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Ethnic Studies, and Psychology departments. In the other will be the Geology, Environmental Analysis and Computer Science departments. The combined budget for both buildings is an estimated $32 million dollars. The buildings will be completed in 2006.

Besides construction on 6th street, Pomona's Lyon Court dormitory is scheduled for a $2.3 million dollar face-lift this summer “It will primarily be a cosmetic renovation,” says Director Hansen. Most obvious to students will be the new carpeting and fresh paint job that it receives, although it is also due for updated fire alarm and sprinkler systems and some heating modifications.