Moves afoot across the university
Earlier this month a flurry of emails announced moves, some long-term and some temporary, for various departments. It’s all part of a larger plan.
“Eventually, we want to move all the human sciences into the library building and all of the social sciences into the Hall Building,” explained Martine Lehoux, Director of Facilities Planning and Development.
Large-scale department moves are organized to take advantage of the relative quiet of the summer months. In most cases, moves do not just require shifts from one set of offices to another, but also the construction or development of special facilities (the digital oral history lab described in the Journal, May 3, being an obvious example).
Coordination is necessary to ensure that everything is up and running when needed. “We want everything ready for an Aug. 1 move-in,” said Heroux. Moving the History Department from the fifth to the tenth floor of the LB Building frees up their old offices on the sixth floor.
By the start of the fall term, that floor will be shared by the English Department and Études françaises. To minimize security risks while that floor becomes a construction site, Études françaises has temporarily moved to the fifth floor of the library building. They will stay while the necessary work, primarily redoing the floors and painting walls, is completed.
According to Lehoux, the long-term plan would be to see the library expand to the fifth floor, and move the Education Department to Hingston Hall at Loyola. But these plans have not yet been approved and remain tentative.
Meanwhile, the tenth floor of the Hall Building could be gussied up like the two floors above it to become the eventual home of the Religion Department and perhaps the School of General Studies.
Besides the moves planned over this year, there are other projects on the go. The library building will have its façade cleaned up.
Loyola will see a long-anticipated renovation of the Hive on the second floor of the Campus Centre. The AD Building will finally benefit from central air conditioning on its fifth floor.
And of course, work has already begunto temporarily transform the west wing of the Grey Nuns Motherhouse into a residence (see story).