A much-needed facelift

Almost half a century after its construction – 40 years to be exact — the Hibbs Building will undergo its first complete renovation. The $10.6 million project, scheduled to begin after this spring semester, should be completed by August 2006. It will combine two capital construction projects: a $9 million building renovation to replace the buildings’ infrastructure, and $1.6 million for classrooms.

Brian Ohlinger, the associate vice president for facilities management, said the university is initially addressing the building’s mechanical system – the heating, cooling and the electrical distribution to make the building functional.

“The second piece of the renovation is all of the classrooms,” he said. “They are being renovated and updated in their look and appearance and technology.”

The former food-service areas on the first and second floors will become a learning center, completing what Ohlinger called a “three-pronged approach” to the renovation.

In 2002, when Virginians voted for a General Obligation Bond Referendum, they approved $846 million for the state’s higher education institutions for capital projects, which included VCU’s Hibbs Building on Park Avenue. Like all referendums, it was approved by the Virginia General Assembly and Gov. Mark Warner before it went on the ballot.

“In the actual bond referendum, you have to list each capital project,” said Teresa Atkinson, the associate vice provost for finance. “So when the taxpayers voted on it, they actually voted on Hibbs individually.”

Jamie Rodriguez, a 22-year-old junior, said the benefits of voting for the referendum were enough to make him cast a ballot.

“I had to do it,” he said. “VCU really needs some better buildings. Hibbs especially. Whenever I had classes there, the heating and cooling systems were pretty terrible.

“Besides, the building is just ugly and smelly on the inside, and it isn’t a comfortable environment.”

Atkinson, the person charged with finding alternative space for Hibbs’ academic functions, said her duties include making better use of existing classroom space and finding ways to convert other space to offices, classrooms, computer labs, and other academic priorities.

For example, the Student Commons Theater will serve as a classroom Mondays through Fridays during the day as well as Monday nights. It won’t be used the other weeknights because, Atkinson said, that would impact the student groups’ needs.

Preliminary plans call for the English Department, the Writing Center, the Language Lab, the portion of the dean’s office housed in Hibbs and the academic advising office for the College of Humanities and Sciences to move to the first and second floors of the West Grace Street Student Housing.

The Geographic Information Systems, Atkinson said, will move to the School of Business Building where a similar program already exists, while some of the computer labs will use some of the renovated spaces in the University Student Commons and in the James Branch Cabell Library basement.

After the renovation, Atkinson said, everything in Hibbs will return except for the college’s computer operations, which will remain in the basement of the West Grace Street housing facility.

“It is desperately needed,” Atkinson said of the renovation. “From the academic standpoint, we would have loved to do it years earlier instead of waiting for funding from the General Obligation Bond to accomplish it.”

Not all students, however, say they care about the renovation. Senior Jared Sosa, a film major, said he will be “long gone” from the campus by the time Hibbs returns to its normal operations.

“I can’t really say that I’m excited or anything,” Sosa said. “But I do think it’s a good thing. When I had classes in Hibbs, the air conditioning was pretty poor and the seats in the lecture hall would hurt my back after a while.”

Rebecca Ray, a 19-year-old junior and an art-education major, said she was pleased to hear about the Hibbs renovation plans.

“I only had one class in Hibbs,” she said. “Let me tell you – that was enough!” Ray’s critique of Hibbs resembled Sosa’s when she stressed the uncomfortable environment.

“It has an impact on how you perceive the class,” Ray said about the classroom settings. “When the rooms are blah-colored and stuffy, and when the lighting is poor like in Hibbs, it makes going to class that much more unappetizing. Besides, Hibbs is just old.”

Ohlinger also described Hibbs’ aging classrooms:

“They still look like the 1960s classrooms — some of them more than others,” he said. “Those rooms up there that have the chairs attached to the floors – it’s really like it was when I went to school.”

Hibbs was built in two stages, the first in 1957 and the second as an addition in 1965. Other than some renovations to the food-service areas in 1989 and another in 2000 for computer labs, Hibbs remains the same building it was 40 years ago. This means the 2006 freshman class might never know much about the original Hibbs Building.

“Lucky them,” Ray said.