In with the New...

Construction and Renovation on the 5Cs

Janine Kapp / Claremont Student

By Janine Kapp
Staff Writer

Things are changing here at the Claremont Colleges, with construction taking place on several campuses for new buildings and renovations. New residence halls are being built at Pitzer, renovations to the Smith Campus Center are in the works at Pomona and Scripps will begin construction on a new fitness center soon.

The construction at Pitzer will effectively shift the location of the campus center from its current location to the northeast. Three new "residence hall complexes" will be placed around the Gold Student Center. Expectations are high for the new buildings, to be named Pitzer Hall, Sanborn Hall and Atherton Hall. According to Pitzer's website, the new buildings will feature an outdoor amphitheater, outdoor classroom meeting spaces, twenty-five study rooms, a computer lab, three "Learning Communities,” an art studio with classroom and gallery space, a "Smart" classroom equipped with audiovisual and computer capabilities and a new Admissions Office, among other things. The projected completion date is March 2007, and students are expected to be able to move in the following August.

In distinctly Pitzer fashion, the new residence halls will be “green,” built according to an environmentally conscious design. The college will utilize renewable resources during the construction process and plans to operate the facilities in an environmentally responsible manner once they are finished.

Pitzer is following the standards of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the nationally recognized system for designing and constructing environmentally sustainable buildings. Upon completion, Pitzer seeks to earn a Gold rating from the US Green Building Council.

Another goal of the Pitzer project is to improve the on-campus residency rate. The new halls will increase the number of beds from 615 to 752, increasing the on-campus residency capacity to 93%.

At Pomona College, new buildings are going up and older ones are getting revamped.

Two new buildings, to named Lincoln and Edmunds, will be located at 6th Street and College Way, providing the college with an additional 92,300 square feet of space. The Lincoln building will be used for Asian American Studies, Black Studies and Chicano/a Studies, as well as the Neuroscience and Psychology Departments. The Edmunds buildings will house the Computer Science, Environmental Analysis, Geology and most of the Linguistics and Cognitive Science Departments.

Like Pitzer, Pomona is making an effort to practice environmentally conscious construction. For instance, solar panels will be placed in the courtyards of the new buildings to help converse energy. The buildings are also being constructed to attain the U.S. Green Building Council’s Silver certification. Construction of these buildings, which began in May of 2005, is slated to end sometime during the 2006-2007 academic year.

Another building experiencing some changes at Pomona is the Museum of Art, which was renovated during the summer of 2006. Changes to the building include an expansion of the main lobby entrance and an increase in storage facilities to hold the Museum’s permanent collection.

The Smith Campus Center is also being renovated. The Coop Fountain is being extended, a change that will also provide better visibility into the building. In addition, students will be soon able to enter the Coop from the north of campus. Meeting rooms and lounges are receiving interior face-lifts as well. In place of the old student mail center will be a new student gallery space. Stover Walk and Marston Quad will be also be affected by changes to Campus Center’s terrace. Begun in May 2006, the renovation should be completed in December 2006.

Finally, plans for additional cardio-fitness facilities are being developed for the Rains Center. A possible 7,000 gross square feet may be added to the existing facility. This construction will start in late summer 2006 and the renovation should be completed by May 2007, just in time for use during the 2007-08 academic year.

Scripps will also be expanding its athletic facilities (or current lack thereof). A new recreation and athletic center is being built next to the Scripps pool. The center will be named the Sallie Tiernan Field House after Sallie Tiernan, a Scripps alumna and former trustee. The new facility will be geared toward women and actively promote a woman-friendly environment, making it unique on the 5Cs. To go along with this, the center will provide nutrition and health classes along with workout rooms.

The facility should benefit all of the Claremont Colleges. The gym will include locker rooms for students as well as faculty, a team room with audiovisual equipment, weight and cardio rooms, and a location for the CMS women’s sports teams to practice and play. The Field House grounds will also include a NCAA regulation-sized women's lacrosse and soccer field, directly benefiting CMS athletics.

Interestingly, the Field House is being built on uneven terrain. For this reason, the south end of the field will be raised by about eight feet in order to make the land level. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the first week in October 2006.