Courtside to be renovated

Correction: The original subheadline on this article published Nov. 17 contained an error.

Construction in Courtside’s bathrooms that was supposed to start in August will likely begin winter quarter, pending bids from contractors.

Five of the eight houses will be renovated during this school year, and the rest during the next school year, said Frank Montana, construction mitigator for the Office of Residential Life. Each house renovation will take about a month.

As each house is renovated, students will be moved to an empty house that has just finished renovation, Montana said.

Many students said they would be inconvenienced by having to move to another building at a random time during school.

The bids for the project were sent out earlier last month and are due this Friday, when Housing and Hospitality will likely select the lowest bidding contractor for the project, Montana said. He added that cost estimates could not be disclosed to prevent influence on contractor bids.

The project was announced in April, and though it was still in the planning stages, ORL wanted to inform students signing up for housing at the time that there might be construction during the next school year, Montana said.

“(ORL) assistance will be provided to help the students move out to try to mitigate impact,” he said. “We know the students will be inconvenienced by this, but they knew of the construction when signing up for housing.”

Mina Wahab, a second-year undeclared student who lives in Courtside, said many of her friends don’t want to move to another building because it is inconvenient.

“If I’m notified well in advance of the actual move date, it’ll be fine,” she said. “It’s still going to be a hassle to pack everything up and go to a different building.”

After the contractor is chosen, there will be another planning stage, Montana said. As a result, the start date for construction is expected to be around Dec. 20. Construction will continue through the school year and will halt during the summer before resuming in September 2011.

The work will include ceiling finishes and the replacement of bathroom floors, shower units, vanity cabinets, plumbing and fixtures. The carpets in the lounge and in the corridors outside the rooms are also supposed to be replaced, he said.

“The buildings and fixtures are 18 years old,” Montana said. “It needs work, so we are putting in all new stuff, and we’re doing as much as we can in one construction period so we don’t have to do anything again soon.”

Coco Van Iwaarden, a second-year communication studies student who lives in Courtside, said that though she doesn’t mind moving, the process could make it confusing for her friends to visit her.
Van Iwaarden said she thinks revamping bathrooms in Courtside is unnecessary.

“I think the money for construction could actually be better used elsewhere and for other things, like renovating the bathrooms in Dykstra,” she said. “Courtside has some of the nicest buildings, and I think the bathrooms are already amazing.”

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