$637,000 floor, furniture remodeling to be complete by August, McMahon says
The second floor of Russell House is currently closed for business, but students will see big changes when returning to campus in August.
On July 6, the university began a 35-day construction project to renovate and update the floors on the second level of the Russell House. These renovations include construction on the Greene Street stairwell from the basement to the third floor as well as new tile and new furniture in the second level lobby. The floor project is estimated at $437,000 and the new furniture cost about $200,000. The projects are covered by a combination of Russell House development funds collected from the student activity fee and other generated funds.
The current construction has caused a bit of relocation and re-routing of traffic. Because the entrances to several offices have been blocked, the majority of the Russell House staff has relocated to the Student Life Center until the project is complete.
“We are still completely operational in the building,” said Kim McMahon, director of the Russell House University Union.
The renovations are scheduled to be completed by the time fall semester begins. So far, the crew is operating right on schedule.
“The project started Friday at 5 p.m. and they were in here at 5:01 p.m., bringing in equipment, chipping tiles,” McMahon said. “We are all committed to ensuring that the project is done and is done well. It’ll be an end product that people will be proud of.”
While closing down part of the building during the summer isn’t ideal, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Jerry Brewer says the end result in August will be a major improvement for the Russell House.
“It’s going to be a dramatic difference when people come back,” Brewer said. “The whole second floor will be immensely more pleasing.”
The new flooring on the second level will incorporate the university’s signature colors.
“We actually went with a garnet and black color schematic. That was a good fit for the physical structure of the second floor, which already has the granite and stone walls,” McMahon said.
Ribbons in the floor pattern are designed to look like Cocky’s feathers while serving a dual purpose of directing foot traffic throughout the building.
The seating on the second floor lobby is getting a makeover, too.
“We are using a variety of different types of furnishing. We’ve got some individual chairs, we’ve got some benches, we’ve got chairs to sit at tables, we’ve also got some more lounge-y type chairs so that people can do different types of things,” McMahon said. “There’s almost twice as much seating.”
The 54 seats that currently occupy the second floor lobby are all the same chairs. The current end tables are all of the same model, too. The renovated lobby will use six different types of seating and three different types of tables.
The lobby will also feature a new information center and will place the Russell portraits in a more prominent area.
McMahon said the renovations will change the atmosphere of the building entirely.
“It’s going to feel a lot brighter and a lot happier,” she said.