Chicken Little would hate to live in Walsh Hall.
As a result of masonry work on Griesedieck Hall’s southeast tower, six rooms in Walsh Hall have been evacuated, displacing 12 students.
“It is not good practice to work over the top of occupied spaces,” said Denise Taylor, assistant vice president for facility planning.
The construction on Griesedieck is an attempt to rectify the problem of too few brick ties holding the surface bricks to the concrete structure.
According to Taylor, the repair process will remove and replace limited areas of masonry while all other areas will be pinned to the building structure using masonry anchors.
“At this time, no bricks have fallen away from the building,” said Taylor. “However, during the repair process, the mason will be removing bricks and replacing them.”
With this construction overhead, 12 students located in the “limbo” section on the fourth floor of Walsh Hall, where it connects to Griesedieck Hall, were relocated.
Director of Housing Argyle Wade informed the affected students several weeks ago and explained what the Department of Residence Life could do for them. Of the relocated students, nine moved to Grand Forest Apartments, two moved within the Griesedieck Complex and one moved to Fusz Hall.
The relocations are intended to be temporary, with the students being allowed to return to the fourth floor of Walsh once the repairs to Griesedieck are completed, estimated at four to six weeks.
In order to make the relocation more smooth for those moving to Grand Forest Apartments, Residence Life adjusted the housing rate and will be providing telephone, cable and, soon, DSL-Internet to those apartments. A professional moving company wa sbrought in to relocate the students.
Furniture, including a dining room table with four chairs, sofa, loveseat, beds, desks and dressers, was provided to students moving to Grand Forest.
“We were trying to make it as accommodating as possible, as quickly as possible,” explained Shawn Swinigan, director of Residence Life.
He added that affected students reacted well to the move and understood the concern for their safety.
