Department Moves Out of Storm Hall
Well, it's finally happened. The CSU has finally given the go ahead to renovate Storm and Nasatir Halls. After a few false starts, the Geography Department can no longer call Storm Hall home. At least temporarily. The department will return to a new Storm Hall in the summer of 2014. At least that's the plan. Read on for more information.
Geography Annex
The last few boxes, computers, and other equipment have made their way from Storm Hall to the newly christened Geography Annex. The department is now located on the central/east side of campus. The Annex is a bit smaller in terms of total square footage, so folks have had to do a bit of purging in order to fit. On the bright side, the department has its own building. Yes, we are the sole occupants of the two story structure. Faculty, staff, and students moved over Spring Break, March 26–30. The Richard D. Wright Spatial Analysis Laboratory and the Physical Lab completed the move the week after 2012 Commencement. The CESAR complex will remain in its familiar place and move directly into Storm when it is completed.
Here's a few photos of our new home:
- Northwest entrance
- Northeast entrance
- Lobby/Atrium at the main (south) entrance to the Annex
Storm Hall Renovation
The construction fences are scheduled to go up on June 1, 2012. Construction is set to begin on June 15. Probably the most noticable change resulting from the renovation will be that Storm and Nasatir will no longer be connected. The removal of the connecting corridors will provide a more open and inviting area for folks.
The CESAR complex will remain in its same Nasatir Hall location during the construction. The lab will be afforded some protection from the ensuing chaos of demolition and being next to a construction site, however, it will be noisy and maybe a bit dusty for a bit as the construction/demo crews strip both Storm and Nasatir Halls down to bare concrete walls.
Once the buildings are completely gutted and separated, the renovation begins. All new everything will be installed to bring the buildings into the 21st Century. A new building will be built on the west side of Storm. This building will house two large lecture halls, offices for Linguistics and Rhetoric and Writing, and a large patio area. The balcony views from the third floor office suite will not be impeded.
When construction is complete, the department will move back to the third floor of Storm Hall. The CESAR complex will move into its new home also on the third floor of Storm Hall at this time. This is scheduled for Summer of 2014.
When CESAR has moved, the second phase of construction will begin and the building where CESAR was located will be demolished and a new food service/convenience store built. When construction is finished, all of the College of Arts and Letters will be located in the Northwest corner of the campus.
Some architectual drawings of our new home:
The site plan for the new Storm/Nasatir/West Building complex in
relation to the existing Arts and Letters building and West Commons. The new West Building will take advantage of
the hill slope down to the parking lot.
The building layout just for the new complex. Notice that Storm and Nasatir are no longer connected. Cross sections
of the buildings are labeled by A and B.
Cross sections through the buildings. The large lecture halls are dug into the hill slope down towards the parking
lot. The West building will not obstruct the view from the balcony on the third floor of Storm.
The department will occupy the entire third floor of Storm Hall. The office wing will be largely
unchanged. We have requested to convert two (2) of the offices across from the Spatial Analysis Lab and move the
Seminar Room out of the office wing to this larger room. We'd relocate the department chair’s office to the
Reading Room and move the Reading Room to the vacated Seminar Room. We'd like to alter the department office area
to give the admin coordinators larger offices. These changes appear to have been approved by the university, though
updated plans have not been issued.
CESAR, the Physical Lab, and the Weather Station will all take up residence on the third floor. The lab spaces have been designed to be as flexible as possible in regards to workspace. A new work/storage area for the tech staff has been included as well as a Secure Projects room for students working on server technologies. A Geo-visualization lab and a larger (and better wired) Server Room complete the lab space.
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