The Board of Trustees approved a project to fix the "terrifying" elevators in Capstone.
“Capstone elevator controls — they're highly problematic, and what this project will do is replace the controls entirely with a new, solid-state electronic control,” said Eugene Warr Jr., a trustee.
Breanna Robertson, a first-year psychology student, was excited when she heard that the current elevator controls were going to be replaced with new ones because she is unsatisfied with the current elevators as a whole.
“Our elevators are terrifying," Robertson said. "They make a lot of weird noises, they make stops on floors that buttons weren’t pressed for, the doors open before they stop moving."
Robertson said she just wants the new elevator controls to work because in their current state they often skip her floor after she has already pressed her floor number.
“If they would just stop on the floors that they’re supposed to, that would be awesome," Robertson said.
Connor Tormey, a first-year business undeclared student, said he has experienced his fair share of problems with the elevators at Capstone House. Apart from these issues, he said his overall experience at the Capstone has been what he expected.
“It’s a freshman year college dorm, so you can’t really expect much from it," Tormey said.
Hunter Taylor, a first-year undeclared student, said he was stuck on the elevator after he had done laundry and also once had to help his friends get down from level 18 because the elevator was stuck there.
“I feel like they’re pretty slow as of right now. It takes a while; sometimes you have to wait a long time before you actually can get the elevator doors to open,” Taylor said.
The 18-story building, equipped with a rotating restaurant on the roof, was originally completed in 1967. The elevator controls currently in the residence hall have not changed since the building's completion. In addition to the elevator controls being replaced, there are more renovations in the works to come to the Capstone.
Josh Wise, associate director of communications and conferences for housing, said staff are looking forward to renovating many buildings throughout the summer. The elevator controls at Capstone are stage one, although no details have been released concerning how the new controls will look and function or when the renovation will happen.
“There is a forthcoming renovation to behold in Capstone in the coming years that the elevators simply can’t wait for," Warr said.
The project's budget is $900,000 and will be pulled from the housing and maintenance reserve fund.