MCLA's Bowman Hall To Open In September
.JPG) The new entrance to the old Bowman Hall on the MCLA campus. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Students and faculty returning to the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts this fall semester will be in for a big surprise.
With final-hour projects being finished up in Bowman Hall, the newly renovated building will be open for the first day of the term.
Vice President of Administration and Finance James Stakenas said the $15 million renovation project houses a reimagining of the building that still will be used primarily as a classroom building.
"When it closed it was primarily a classroom building and when it opens it will be primarily a classroom building," Stakenas said. "I expect there will be a lot of classes and ... there will be a variety of classroom spaces and furniture."
He said when the building opened in the 1970s, it had 24 classrooms. Now there are 13 classrooms, four conference rooms and a host of student lounges and spaces to support math, computer science, academic affairs, arts management, visual arts, and fine and performing arts.
Stekenas said because the building was a renovation, the contractors had to work within the confines of the Brutalist structure to alter the way it looks inside. An example of this can be seen when entering the building where there is now a vestibule (to halt wind and blowing leaves from coming in) and the center shaft that once was open from the top to the bottom floor is closed.
"When you have a remodel you aren't moving the exterior walls and the ceilings so what can you do to make it look dramatically different?" he said. "Filling in the holes changed the interior perception of the building."
Along with this, there are many areas for students to sit and all new windows to provide more ambient light. That draws together a whole package that Stakenas referred to as "much more professional, clean look with a more appropriate quality for students."
One of the biggest highlights of the renovated building is the technology embedded in it.
Stakenas said the whole building is wireless and most desks have outlets that allow students to plug in laptops or tablets to power a more high-tech learning experience needed today.
He said many of the classrooms are equipped with "short-throw projectors" that turn a classroom's walls into a touchscreen.
He pointed out that many of the classrooms have writeable walls that allow teachers to write directly onto what the projector's display. This links up to Canvas, the school's online portfolio system, and allows teachers to send notes from class to students.
"The short-throw projectors record pages in real time so teachers can take copious notes on the screen, take a screen shot, and email it to students at the end of the class so that they will see specifically what was discussed," he said.
Some of the classrooms have been wired with extra technological capabilities that Stakenas hopes in the future will be able to utilize more advanced technology yet to be available.
"We are hoping we can get someone interested in using technology here as an instruction tool," he said. "We have the infrastructure to be able to hang more monitors and bring in more technology."
Construction on Bowman started in early summer 2014. Funding was captured in 2008 as part of the $54.5 million higher education bond, some $30 million of which went toward the new science building. Stakenas said these assets have "improved immensely" the quality of the college's classrooms.
Stakenas said the renovation allowed MCLA to make the building completely compliant the Americans with Disabilities Act with movable furniture and ramps in tiered classrooms to accommodate students in wheelchairs.
Also, he added, the two side entrances of the building, which were not accessible to students in wheelchairs, have been switched to exit only making the only two entrances in the front and the back.
"Everyone gets the same entrance which went along with our universal design concept," Stakenas said. "The intention is to create a traffic flow that is the same for everyone."
Stakenas said the classrooms and conference rooms are designed to be flexible because "not every teacher likes the same furniture." He demonstrated that most tables can be moved and chairs can be stacked.
"If a teacher wanted to create a conference room environment then they could do it in a heartbeat," Stakenas said.
Other noticeable improvements includes ambidextrous desks with cup holders, phones programmed with emergency contacts, key-code activated doors, and water fountains that allow students to more easily fill their water bottles.
Following the stairs and the new lit handrails down to the bottom floor, students will find a larger cafeteria with and adjacent student lounge where they can purchase food for when they want to sit and work on a project or are on the go. This space was improved upon by eliminating the two large lecture halls on the north end of the building.
 Furniture is movable and the use of electronics considered in the design. |
Stakenas said many of the new class spaces are "programmable spaces" designed for specific subject matter – such as a computer science lab with its own server on the bottom floor.
"One of the things they like to do in computer science is try to crash stuff and they are going to have their own server and the chance to crash their own stuff," he said.
Stakenas said the math faculty will finally get more appropriate offices where they will have room to tutor. Previously, they were in a partitioned classroom without effective heat or air conditioning.
The top floor houses faculty and classrooms for fine and performing arts, arts management, and visual arts. Many of these class spaces were once held off campus.
The visual art labs will have access to drop-down power trays for power drills and glue guns so students do not have wires on the floor.
Also in the arts hall, there are counters set up for impromptu presentations.
Stakenas said the new Bowman Hall space has also triggered changes throughout campus. Career services will move to Eldridge Hall and athletic training and a possible student space for scheduled use and performances will find a new home in Venable Hall.
He said this will create space in the Amsler Campus Center that will allow the college to double the size of its fitness center.
Stakenas said these changes on campus are and will continue to be triggered by fulfilling a quality education for students and providing faculty with more resources.
"The use of buildings migrate with the challenges that we face, whether that be the number of students, the type of instruction, or the type of services we need to offer," he said. "We are proud of our faculty and proud of the work that they do and it is just a delight to have this fabulous facility for them to come back into and teach this class of 2019."
The grand opening of Bowman Hall will be Sept. 10.
Originally built by Palandjian & Sons Inc. of Cambridge in 1970, Bowman Hall was designed by architect James Lawrence Jr. of Brookline. The building first was dedicated – along with the Freel Library and Eldridge Hall – on May 27, 1970.
Bowman Hall was named after Grover C. Bowman, the fourth president of North Adams State Teachers College, who served from 1937 to 1955. He was born in Covington, Ind., he attended Williams College and graduated in 1906.
Tags: MCLA, renovation,
