Now that the construction of the new residential plazas is
nearing completion on the Hill, preliminary plans to refurbish the
older high-rise residential halls are being made.
After meeting with contractors last Thursday, Alfred Nam, the
associate director of rooms for UCLA Housing, said he anticipates
the refurbishing of Sproul and Hedrick Halls to begin next spring
and involve everything from upgrading the heating system to making
roofing repairs to replacing fixtures in the bathrooms.
In March of next year, UCLA Housing plans to begin an upgrade of
Hedrick’s heating system. This project will not displace any
residents because an effort will be made to do the majority of the
work while students are in class, Nam said.
He hopes the project will be completed by September or October
2006. In addition to work on Hedrick’s heating system, more
extensive refurbishments of Sproul Hall are expected to begin as
soon as students check out for the summer in June 2006. Once the
improvements to Sproul begin, all but the Sproul front desk will be
closed until all work is completed. The work is anticipated to take
approximately one year, Nam said.
Because all of Sproul will be closed while refurbishments are
being made, many students will live in Rieber Vista, Rieber Terrace
and Hedrick Summit, the new residential plazas.
Karen Chao, a third-year biochemistry student and a current
resident assistant for Sproul Hall, said the refurbishments will be
an inconvenience to students as it is one of the more popular
residential halls because of its location.
Students living in other buildings hope improvements to their
halls are also on UCLA Housing’s agenda.
“I think that it is good that they are upgrading in
general, but I wish they would upgrade Dykstra as well,” said
Jane Watts, a third-year history student.
A definitive list of all the work that will be completed has not
yet been determined, partially because a budget is yet to be
set.
Nam said the focus of the work that will be done is mechanical.
Upgrades of elevator switches, heating systems, fire alarm systems
and other mechanical operations are driving the need for the
refurbishment.
“(The fire alarm system) obviously works, but we’re
going to replace it entirely so that it reports to the fire
department. Right now it is just a local alarm,” Nam
explained.
Some of the other items they would like to check or upgrade
include electrical work, roofing, bathroom fixtures, windows,
emergency power, ventilation and possibly carpeting and drapes if
the budget permits, Nam said.
“We want to be more proactive than reactive,” he
said.
While Sproul is closed, UCLA Housing will try to get some
electrical work done, including checking the current wiring and
possibly increasing the electrical capacity with the addition of
more outlets in the rooms and lounges to accommodate the demands of
residents.
Nam claimed it would be cost effective to add more electrical
capacity in the residential halls because the lounges are sometimes
rented to outside parties for programming.
Another costly upgrade that Housing hopes to make is changing
all the windows in Sproul. Because the windows are very old,
maintenance personnel have had a difficult time replacing broken
parts because they are no longer manufactured. Housing hopes to
replace the current windows with new and more energy efficient ones
that are double paned to block ultraviolet rays, which would help
to keep the rooms cooler.
“The air conditioning cost is tremendous, so we probably
won’t be able to air condition the entire building,”
Nam said, adding that the cost to air condition the residential
hall was estimated at approximately $4 million.
In addition to replacing current fixtures such as toilets and
basins, the bathrooms are also planned to be re-tiled.
“We think that it is critical to replace the bathroom
tiles to make it waterproof because occasionally there are leaks to
the walls,” Nam said.
Lastly, he said that Housing would like to improve the
ventilation system in the laundry rooms because the current
conditions are causing the paint to peal. But to ventilate these
rooms, a hole would need to be drilled through all floors, a
procedure that may be too costly to be included in the budget.
“Once we go down the road a bit and start to define what
we can or can’t do, then we’ll have a better idea as to
the scope of work that will be done,” Nam said.