While nothing was finalized, the most likely solution to the current freshman housing crunch is to tear down Williston Hall and build in its place a first-year dormitory.
The main goals for first-year renovations are to eliminate all triples, provide more social and study space, and to move all freshmen to the quad. This would mean that Valentine Hall would no longer be a first-year dorm.
"Everyone pretty much agrees that the immediate solution for detripling is Williston," said President Tom Gerety. He cautioned, however, that "nothing's signed, sealed and delivered."
Sasaki Associates, an architectural firm currently advising the College, will prepare preliminary plans by January. "There's very little doubt that it will happen," Gerety said of the renovations.
It is also likely that James and Stearns Halls will be torn down and rebuilt as part of the freshman quad renovations, but this issue will not be resolved until May.
"The architects' recommendation is that James and Stearns should be redone, and it's cheaper to do it by tearing them down," said Gerety, adding that tearing down the buildings is "almost a foregone conclusion."
Other proposals include turning Pratt Museum into a dormitory and building a swing dorm to make sure enough housing exists during renovations. The proposed changes are, for the most part, extremely tentative and in their earliest stages of development, according to Philip Winterer, the trustee chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee.
"What we're doing now is going down a very long path, trying to create and then implement what we're calling the Residential Master Plan," said Winterer.
"Sasaki and members of the Residential Master Plan Committee began by conducting a survey of all residential housing," said Winterer. The committee, which includes students, faculty, and administrators, researched student attitudes, the housing situation and recent renovations at other schools and consulted several technical experts.
Winterer described and supported the conclusion of the committee that "freshman housing needs prompt attention." He also mentioned that de tripling first-year housing is "of utmost concern."
"Sophomore housing is close behind [freshman housing]," he added. "Eventually other student housing needs renewal. The fraternity houses were mostly built in the 1920s and their systems, the heating and so forth, are coming to the end of their lives."
But Winterer said that the most pressing issue is the plan for freshman housing.
"It seems to be somewhat separable as an issue, and so can be addressed before the rest of the Residential Master Plan is completed," said Winterer. "There is general agreement that freshmen should live together and should be grouped together. The concept of an all-freshman quad was discussed by committees starting in 1996."
Sasaki presented four possible plans for creating a triple-free first-year quad with the aim of fitting 467 beds in the area. The four plans were presented at a meeting of the Trustee Building and Grounds Committee in September.
Winterer confirmed that one of the four Sasaki plans was "clearly superior" and that "at that [September] meeting the board generally liked the proposal." The current status of the plan is still preliminary.
"So now what we have to do is let the College community have a look at the Sasaki proposal," Winterer said.
Currently, the Committee on Priority and Resources is looking at the plan. Dean of Students Ben Lieber will also discuss the plan with the College Council and the Student Government Organization.
The Sasaki Proposal: Williston Hall
The most clearly formulated of any plans thus far is the replacement of Williston with a freshman dormitory. Williston currently houses the departments of black studies and philosophy, including offices and classroom space.
Winterer said that the academic departments that are housed in Williston will likely move to Cooper House. Cooper is owned by the College but has never been renovated for office space. One of the two formal votes at the trustee meeting this weekend was a go-ahead to begin renovations of Cooper. The other was to charge Sasaki to develop plans for the new Williston.
Winterer added that the current occupants of Williston are "not unhappy about [the move]. They rather like the idea."
One of the problems with Williston is its size. While there is not yet any conceptualization of the interior configuration, Williston will most likely be destroyed and replaced by a similar but larger building matching Appleton Hall. According to Winterer, this would make "two equally sized bookends to college-row."
Williston is likely to have more social space then Appleton. "We probably made a mistake when Appleton was renovated," said Winterer. "We may go back as part of this process and put more social space into Appleton."
The plan for Williston, while not finalized, is likely to be the first obvious physical change in Amherst housing.
"[The Trustees] want to reach a final decision on the replacement of Williston at our meeting at the end of January," Winterer said. "And we've already authorized the renovation of Cooper. And we've engaged architects to design a renovation of Williston."
"The design issue is important," Gerety said. "The basic style would be to look like one of the old buildings on the quad."
James and Stearns Halls
The second facet of the Sasaki proposal is to tear down James and Stearns, replacing them with larger dorms. "The replacement would make more sense than trying to rehabilitate James and Stearns," Winterer said, though he added that "this is just a proposal."
Because renovations would have to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, it is not cost-effective to just rehab the current dorms, explained Gerety.
Under the current proposal, the dorms would present the same profile to the quad, but instead of being L-shaped as they are currently, another leg would be attached in the opposite direction, resulting in a Z-shaped construction. The appearance of the quad will be preserved by setting back the additional space.
Pratt Museum
"Sasaki surprised us all by deciding that Pratt [Museum] could be quite attractive as a dorm," said Winterer as he discussed the most unconventional and controversial component of the Sasaki proposal.
The most pressing, and currently unanswered question, is where to relocate the museum collection and whether such a difficult project is justifiable. Pratt also houses the geology department.
"The Pratt Museum and geology offices are in play," said Gerety, adding that the new home for Pratt Museum may be smaller than the current space. "That would be a controversial and big issue," he said.
However, Winterer suggested that moving geology would not be difficult.
"We understand that they would welcome a new building. They would not be unhappy," Winterer said.
Winterer speculated that an addition could be made to the northeast corner of Merrill Science Center for the geology department, but again "that is just a guess."
Winterer also expressed some concern that people who are accustomed to Pratt as an academic building might object to its conversion into a dormitory. "There are some suggestions and concerns that this program effects the balance of academic and residential life around the quad. I think it bothers [some people] that Williston and Pratt will be turned into residences and those [concerns] need to be aired," Winterer said.
The Timetable
A "swing dorm" may be used during first-year housing renovations as well as potential renovations of upper-class housing in the future. A swing dorm is a likely solution for housing displaced students. For example, students that would have lived in James and Stearns would live in the swing dorm during the construction. Although such a building would be an expensive endeavor, Winterer alluded to its potentiality. "There was not even a show of hands, but there was an indication that a swing dorm was probably going to be necessary," he said.
Winterer also suggested that "as a part of this [proposal], North and South Colleges would be renewed in various respects."
As to the time frame for these and future renovations, Winterer indicated that, if approved in January, changes for Williston could occur in the near future.
"We can get at Williston fast because I think the renovation of Cooper could be achieved pretty rapidly, probably over the summer or even starting earlier," said Winterer. "We could be done the year after that with Williston."
For the other dorms, "its going to take a number of years. You can't, as I understand it, tear down James and Stearns and replace them over the summer; we have not really gotten into detailed discussion yet," Winterer added.