Temporary doors open at Cabell
Every week in Cabell Library approximately 63,580 students walk through its doors, according to the library website.
Matt Leonard
Staff Writer
Every week in Cabell Library approximately 63,580 students walk through its doors, according to the library website.
Today, these students will find the old atrium entrance to the library will be closed as part of construction plans for the New Library on Monroe Park Campus. A temporary doorway has been erected on the east-facing wall.
The temporary doorway opened at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, March 21 and will remain open for at least one year until the main entrance of the New Library is completed, according to Sue Robinson, director of communications for VCU Libraries.
Construction for the new entrance began while students were away on spring break, and supposed to be completed before they returned. Robinson said weather has slowed the process and pushed the schedule back a week.
“It was scheduled over break so that construction would not disturb as many people,” Robinson said.
The information services desk inside of Cabell also received a new location earlier this week that will be facing students as they enter the building.
The original atrium entrance, built in 1970, will be demolished to make way for the new library, Robinson said. Since Cabell’s original construction 44 years ago, enrollment at VCU has grown by 19,000 students, according to the VCU libraries website.
The $50 million dollar project, designed by Boston architecture firm Shepley Bulfinch and Virginia Moseley, will include 93,000 feet of new construction and 63,000 feet of renovations.
Students will also lost study space on the first, third and fourth floors during the construction period, and will need to tolerate consturction sound.
“We are handing out free ear buds at the service desk,” Robinson said. “Until this is over we’ll be living in a construction site.”
