Firestone begins fourth stage of renovation

Firestone Library began the fourth of six renovation stages inNovember.

The fourth phase will introduce the new space for the Digital Center for the Humanities, a renovated Rare Books and Special Collections suite and a new home for the Video Library formerly located in East Pyne.

There will also be additional open study and stacks areas completed on the A and B floors.

Most of the fourth phase takes places within the original 1948 building, Design and Construction Project Manager James Wallace noted.

These renovations primarily affect the A, B and C floors of the library as well as various projects in the former Rare Books and Special Collection Gallery. Additionally, the long atrium of the building has been closed off. This project coincides with maintenance work, including replacement of windows and repair of parapets, on the roof of the Trustee Reading Room. Asbestos abatement projects are taking place on the A and B floors.

According to the Firestone Library Renovation blog, the fourth phase is expected to finish in fall 2016.

The renovations concerning the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections are particularly complicated given the need for heightened security and care for the priceless books that will be moved into the new space, Director of Library Finance and Administrations Jeffrey Rowlands said.

The Rare Books and Special Collections suite will feature offices and work areas for curators and staff and a new entry point for the suite in the lobby, as well as a new reading room. The project also includes the relocation of another feature in the Rare Books and Special Collections, the Scheide Library, a private collection that has been in Firestone since 1959 and has just recently been given to the University following the death of William Scheide ’36 last year, Wallace said.

The renovated B floor will also host the Digital Center for the Humanities, a new program that applies digital technology to humanities research, Wallace noted.

Organization of the project has become even more challenging since the project managers have been coordinating maintenance, which is geographically separate from the majority of work being done, with interior renovations, Wallace added.

The entire renovation is scheduled to take 10 to 12 years with the expected end date being sometime in 2018, and will cost an estimated $250 million, according to the University Library blog.

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The construction operates in vertical sections within the building, rather than floor-by-floor, in order to minimize disruption to students, faculty and staff, Rowlands said.

“We had to phase it in chunks of space that enabled us to continue to have all the collections in the building and to have areas that allow people to study and do research,” Rowlands added.

He pointed out that the presence of students, faculty and staff within the building complicates the renovation process.

“There are always challenges, particularly in Firestone, because we are working alongside occupied space and we are discovering a lot as we open up the original building to demolition, and expose conditions that couldn’t have been anticipated,” added Wallace.

Students may have been experiencing disturbances to their work, which Rowlands suggested is most likely due to the ongoing maintenance projects on the roof of the Trustee Reading Room. He noted that the Firestone renovation team is making serious efforts to diminish loud noise in the main parts of the building by conducting noisy projects at night.

“I mean, if you need to renovate the library, you’re going to make some noise, right? So I don’t think it’s a huge issue and I think if anyone was really bothered by this, they would go somewhere else,” Tyler Fair ’17, who frequently studies in Firestone, said.

He noted that the noise disturbed him a couple of times, but he simply moved to another part of the library.

“I don’t think the renovations are too disruptive. I’d say that there are still quiet places where you can study,” Kai Xin Tai ’19 said.

Tai, who works in the Resource Sharing department of Firestone located on C Floor, added that the bulk of work taking place on the B and C floors would not significantly affect studying as these spaces have few open reading rooms.

Earlier phases focused on systems infrastructure and specific areas on the lower floors of the original building, and the most recently completed phase renovated the book storage area for the Rare Books and Special Collections. The third phase began in February 2013 and ended in March 2015.

The fifth and sixth phases will move out to the additions that align Nassau Street, Wallace noted. He added that work in the new additions will be less complex than that within the original architecture.