The Board of Trustees will vote on whether to give the K4 housing project the greenlight at its meeting this weekend.
Individual presentations will be made to the Facilities and Environment and the Business and Finance Committees. The Board will act on the recommendations of these committees, said John Pearce, university architect and a former member of the Facilities and Environment Committee.
“The bottom line is, we’re asking for permission to build,” said Steve Nowicki, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education. “I think everybody’s very positive about [K4]...the Trustees are very supportive of our efforts to continue to improve the undergraduate residential experience.”
The Facilities and Environment Committee will review design of the project, while the Business and Finance Committee will assess funding and financial planning, Pearce said. If both committees approve of their respective proposals, they will then present K4 to the Board as a whole.
William Rawn, of William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc. in Boston—the architectural firm hired by the University to work on this project—will present to the Facilities and Environment Committee. Nowicki said Executive Vice President Tallman Trask, the University’s chief financial officer, will present the budget to the Business and Finance Committee.
“Rawn will have a model of the inside and the outside,” Trask said. “Basically, it will look like other wings.”
Speculation about the Board’s decision is positive, and Board Chair and Democratic state Sen. Dan Blue, Law ’73, said construction is likely to begin. Pearce said he does not expect any controversy over the project.
K4 will include a new residence hall and will complete Keohane Quadrangle. Plans for this fourth building were included in the 2000 Master Plan when Keohane was originally proposed, Pearce said.
“It’s been a relatively logical and reasonable process to explain the siting of the building and context of the architecture,” he said. “We want to keep this architecturally compatible with the rest of the quad.”
The residence hall was slated to open in Fall 2011 but this date was recently pushed back to Spring 2012. The postponement was due mainly to student concern about the impact and disruption caused by construction. Nowicki said that relaxing the timeline by six months will allow the most disruptive construction to be completed over the summer, adding that he does not forsee the decision to postpone the opening as being a problem for the Board.
“I don’t know the specifics, but if it’s delayed to keep from inconvenience to the students, that’s a worthwhile purpose for delaying it,” Blue said. “[Students] have enough interruptions, I think. “
Associate Dean for Residential Life Joe Gonzalez said the benefits of the delay, such as lessening the impact of construction on students, will actually appeal to the Board.
“There were a lot of things gained by making that adjustment,” he said. “I feel that we have a lot of wonderful opportunity here that people will be excited to see realized.”
Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta said he agreed, characterizing the new opening date as “more functional.”
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