Smooth transition back for Baker and Will Rice (1)

By Josh Rutenberg     8/26/10 7:00pm

After 15 months of renovations, Baker College and Will Rice College students were welcomed home to their respective colleges by familiar sights, as well as several new additions. As part of President David Leebron's Vision for the Second Century, which calls for increasing the size of the undergraduate enrollment by 30 percent to approximately 3,800 students by 2015, Baker and Will Rice underwent renovations to increase the number of beds at each college.

Facilities, Engineering and Planning Project Manager Larry Vossler said Baker gained 41 beds from the construction, while Will Rice added seven beds. Lovett College acquired 28 beds from the acquisition of an adjacent section of a former Baker wing.

The same design team for Duncan College and McMurtry College led renovations for Baker and Will Rice, but with the intent of fitting in with existing colleges, rather than a replication of the north colleges, Vossler said.

---

---

"How to fit the character of the building was a big concern to students," Vossler said.

One method of incorporating the new buildings involved taking pieces of the old colleges and reusing them in the renovation process. Limestone owls taken from a demolished section of Baker now line the arcade spanning between the old and new Baker wings.

Tiles from the top of the demolished Will Rice wing, which are no longer manufactured, were reused for the roof of the new Baker wing.

"It brings some of the old into the new," Vossler said. "It helped preserve the historic flavor."

In addition to a new wing, Baker received a fourth story that overlooks the Inner Loop and Humanities Building. Other improvements include a new servery that replaced Baker's old servery, a new computer lab and the incorporation of a community kitchen for students.

The construction team removed the tower in the portion of Baker closest to Lovett, separating the building into two sections, with one being retained by Baker and the other providing additional rooms to Lovett.

The newer section of Will Rice also acquired a fourth story and a new wing. The wing includes a computer lab, a music room and two new apartment areas to house the college's resident associates, whose old quarters existed inside the now torn down portion of Will Rice. In the absence of a servery, Will Rice is receiving food from South Servery. Will Rice will join Lovett in the East Servery upon its completion this winter.

FE&P Manager of Communications Susann Glenn said FE&P anticipates the renovated portions of the buildings will receive silver LEED certifications.

To meet LEED silver certification standards, Glenn said Baker and Will Rice adopted many of the same green technologies used in Duncan and McMurtry, including light sensors, automated air conditioners and low-flow toilet fixtures.

Vossler said green technology at Baker and Will Rice benefited from previous experiences at Duncan and McMurtry.

"It was lessons learned from the north colleges," Vossler said. "We wanted to learn every lesson we could, both what worked and what didn't."

Vossler said during the first 14 days of the colleges being reopened, a total of four work orders were issued for more than 100 rooms, compared to 5,500 work orders at Duncan and McMurtry in early August of last year.

The decision to calibrate and program all of the systems for the rooms at the manufacturer's plant contributed to fewer work orders, Vossler said. By having each piece assembled beforehand, Vossler said students encountered fewer problems with the systems.

To alleviate confusion in using the green technologies, FE&P provided each room with a door hanger explaining how to use the technologies.

Based on student feedback and the time ratio FE&P estimated students keep their windows open, FE&P chose to eliminate window sensors in the new rooms, Vossler said. Feedback led FE&P to change the sealant used for floors as well.

Vossler said Baker and Will Rice students living at Duncan and McMurtry last year had an interaction with green technologies that allowed them to adapt better to Baker and Will Rice's new technologies.

"It's a different paradigm shift trying to live in a green space," Vossler said. "It helps that students came from the north colleges."

Glenn said Baker and Will Rice students were involved in the decision making process throughout the renovations.

"We had the commons opened for a dance night and an international night," Glenn said. "We understood it was difficult to be so far away."

Glenn also said the commons for both colleges were opened during commencement so students could continue traditions of leaving from their own colleges.

Student input appears at the newly renovated colleges in several ways. Hallways at Will Rice have been accented with the college's colors of rust and gold. At Baker, a demand for bookshelves built into the walls manifested in the inclusion of inset bookshelves on rooms located at the end of hallways.

Vossler said students even suggested where to place cable and data outlets.

Student input made the renovations a success, Glenn said.

"During construction we met with [students] and they were extremely helpful," Glenn said. "The process made us very happy with the results."

---