FEASIBILITY STUDIES UNDERWAY FOR POTENTIAL RENOVATIONS

Feasibility studies are underway for potential renovations involving the Bern Schwartz Gymnasium, Marjorie Walter Goodhart Hall and the Eugenia Chase Guild Computing Center, reports Director of Facilities Services Glenn Smith. Smith and other College officials plan to present the completed studies to the Bryn Mawr College Board of Trustees in December.

"We're developing a range of cost options for each project," Smith said. "All three initiatives are driven in some way by the College's Plan for a New Century, which sets out Bryn Mawr's long-term priorities. Leading architectural firms, selected for each study, are consulting with members of the faculty and staff most closely linked to each building."

According to Smith, the proposed renovation to the gymnasium might involve the addition of a dramatic new glass-walled fitness center that would look out over the campus. "Part of what we're studying is the best location for this addition," Smith explained. "One option is for it to extend up the hill so that part of it would form a sort of bridge to Cambrian Row, creating a wheelchair-accessible path to the student-activities village from the center of campus." Plans under discussion with Athletic Director Amy Campbell and the Buell, Kratzer & Powell architecture firm, which handled the renovations of the Benham Gateway and Cambrian Row, would also include enhancement of the existing building with the addition of more natural light and improvements to offices, locker rooms and mechanical spaces and equipment. The study is also considering the addition of five squash courts.

The Boston architectural firm of Feingold Alexander is consulting with the performing-arts faculty about the possibility of interior renovations to Goodhart. "We are looking at the arts as a phenomenon that extends across the whole campus, with Goodhart as its anchor," Smith notes, "so reconceiving arts spaces on campus may involve more than Goodhart. But it will certainly also include an examination of how Goodhart supports the arts program and where it falls short." Plans may include a reconfiguration of the main stage and seating in Goodhart's auditorium, to create more effective work and performance space. The study also hopes to address the need for a modern film-screening facility.

The third candidate for renovation is the Guild Computing Center. MGA Partners, the Philadelphia firm that planned the renovations that are currently underway in Dalton, is conducting the study on this project. The current renovations to Dalton include an underground connection to Guild; the proposed Guild renovations call for Guild and Dalton to become "even more integrated," Smith says. The resulting space would embrace pedagogical technology in ways that invite collaborative engagement among faculty and students.

"We'll be working with architects and members of the community on the studies until December," Smith said. "We believe all three projects would add value in important ways to the overall campus experience of students, faculty and staff alike, but ultimately the future of each of these initiatives will hinge on their fund-raising potential."

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