The first floor of Sproul will be completely renovated during
winter break, making more room for student government, Office of
Residential Life and Housing Administration offices.
The decision to remodel Sproul stemmed from plans to create more
high rise residential halls. To make room for the new Rieber North
dormitory, the Housing Administration Building will be torn down,
said Jack Gibbons, associate director of ORL.
Since Housing Administration’s offices will eventually be
moved to Sproul, a change in floor plans was necessary.
To compensate for overcrowded mailboxes, the overhang above the
entrance to Sproul will be walled off and made into additional
mailboxes, allowing for at least one mailbox per room.
“I forget my mailbox combination a lot and it’d be
convenient if your roommate, a friend that you trust, has the
combo,” said first year political science student Andrew
Huynh.
The glass windows across the current location of the front desk
will become the new entrance to Sproul, Gibbons said.
Caruso’s Deli, the Italian eatery on the first floor of
Sproul, will no longer exist as of December. The area will be
closed off, and Caruso’s and the area behind it, which holds
exercise equipment and dining tables, will be converted into
Housing Administration offices, Gibbons said.
Although students will no longer have access to Caruso’s,
a new boutique offering three services will be built at the north
end of Sproul next to the Bruin Card office.
A smoothie bar, made to order sandwich bar and coffee bar will
be added, along with expanded indoor and outdoor seating, said
Michael Foraker, director of housing.
“I think it’ll be good because sometimes you have to
wait 10 to 15 minutes to get a smoothie (at Puzzles), and
it’s kind of bad when you have to study for midterms,”
said second-year physiological science student Pav Mankal.
A new multi-purpose program space will be used for lectures,
meetings, and other such activities and will be located where the
current entertainment center and recreation room are.
Across from the multi-purpose program space will be new group
study rooms.
Two music practice rooms will also be built in the study area
vicinity, Gibbons said.
The recreation/TV room will be relocated to the northern part of
the lobby, where the computer lab is currently located.
Computers will be moved to the second and third floor study
lounges for now, but final plans have not yet been made, said Alan
Hanson, director of ORL.
Construction will take place throughout winter and spring
quarters and will be completed during summer 2003 before the new
school year starts, Gibbons said.
The elevators and stairwells will remain open and protected
during this time. Pathways will be available, according to Rob
Kadota, Area Resident Manager for ORL and Chair of the Construction
Mitigation Committee.
“We have been talking with the Sproul government to see
what their (the Sproul residents’) priorities and needs
are,” said Kadota.
To ameliorate effects of construction, several key services,
such as the front desk and vending machines will be temporarily
relocated.
Housing tried to warn students about what they would encounter
during the year by mailing out a letter to all on campus residents
this summer, informing them of all future construction projects on
the hill.
“(The construction) is going to make the campus better. It
sucks for us, but it’s going to have to happen
sometime,” said second-year aerospace engineering student
John M. Kim, who lives in Sproul.
Sproul has already undergone some changes over the past summer,
with new carpet designs and repainted walls, Gibbons said.
UCLA also experimented with “takable surfaces,”
walls that allow students to pin up posters, pictures and memos, on
Rieber’s seventh floor.
“We have been trying to see if it is more cost effective
in the long run, rather than paying to repaint the walls every
year,” said On Campus Housing Committee president Michelle
Sivert.
Due to the favorable responses concerning the takable surfaces,
all new residence halls will have these walls, and old dorm rooms
will get them as funding allows, Foraker said.
“The walls let you put stuff up everywhere. You
don’t have to worry about nails in the walls,” said
second-year business economics student Jenny Liu.