06/02/2016
By Ed Brennen

There’s a game of musical chairs under way on campus this summer, only in this version everyone winds up with a seat.

With new Provost Michael Vayda joining the university in June, the Office of the Provost is moving from Cumnock Hall to the fourth floor of University Crossing (Suite 480).

The vacated second floor of Cumnock Hall, meanwhile, is being converted into a new home for the International Students and Scholars Office and Navitas, which were both previously located at Wannalancit Mills.

Institutional Research and Reporting, in turn, is moving to Wannalancit Business Center, allowing its current space in the basement of Cumnock Hall to be converted into a half-dozen new faculty offices and workstations.

It all adds up to a busy summer for the Department of Facilities Management, which has gone into overdrive since Commencement. Here’s a look at what’s on their to-do list across campus this summer:

North Campus

ISSO and Navitas offices: ISSO (eight staff members and two student employees) and Navitas (13 staff members and one student employee) are expected to move to the second floor of Cumnock by mid-July. Facilities Project Manager Marta Kabalin says there will be some minor renovation work to the 4,125-square-foot space, most notably converting the former Trustees Room into a working office space for multiple staff members.

“We’ll be replacing the lighting with more appropriate task lighting, installing some office partitions and adding some new furniture, although we’ll repurpose as much as we can,” Kabalin says.

ISSO Director Maria Conley says moving to the second floor of Cumnock Hall will make life much more convenient for international students, many of whom are enrolled in the Francis College of Engineering and the Manning School of Business.

“We’re all very excited about the move,” Conley says. “We’re also very happy about sharing the space with the Navitas at UMass Lowell program, as well as being closer to the office of Graduate Admissions.”

International Programs Coordinator Allyson Lynch says the move makes sense since so many ISSO events are held on North Campus, “especially our weekly Coffee Hours at Alumni Hall, now just across the street, and our annual Cultural Festival and Thanksgiving Dinner during International Education Week in Cumnock Hall, will now be just a floor below us.”

Olney Science Center: Construction is underway on a new vestibule on the building’s north entrance, facing the North Campus bus stop. In addition to improving accessibility with a graded ramp, the climate-controlled vestibule will be a welcome addition for students waiting for a bus during the winter. At nearby Pinanski Hall, meanwhile, an accessible restroom and women’s restroom are being added to the first floor.

Image by Ed Brennen

Pulichino Tong Business Center: Thanks to a relatively mild winter, work is ahead of schedule on the future home of the Manning School of Business, where the exterior work is nearly complete. “We are making fast progress and are looking to substantially complete the building in January 2017,” says Facilities Project Manager Rupinder Sembhi, who adds that it will then take several months to commission the building before move-in. Once the building is enclosed, interior work will begin. Sembhi says the adjoining Lydon Library first-floor renovation project will also be completed this summer.

North Quad pods: The North Quad renewal infrastructure project, which involves the construction of two permanent “pods” to improve accessibility, utility infrastructure and amenities at Southwick, Pasteur, Kitson and Falmouth halls, also progressed quickly this spring and is on track to be completed by the start of the fall semester. The project will create a communal green space in the quad, with sidewalks allowing students to easily cross between buildings. In June, contractors will install perimeter subgrade waterproofing and drainage, pour concrete sidewall and set the final grading.

South Campus

Image by Ed Brennen

South Campus Mall: With the McGauvran Student Center up and running and South Campus Dining nothing but a memory, Facilities is completing the area’s transformation by landscaping the mall over the summer. An accessible entrance has already been added to Weed Hall, and by fall students can look forward to a swath of green extending from Coburn Hall all the way to the O’Leary Learning Commons.

Also at O’Leary, the mezzanine reading area is being expanded this summer. At Durgin Hall, meanwhile, new desks are being added to several classrooms to create more efficient workspaces for students and their instruments. At Sheehy and Concordia halls, Facilities is working on a minor reconfiguration of the entrance lobby. In August, solar panels will be installed on the roof of the South Parking Garage.

East Campus

At the Campus Recreation Center, the indoor track will be resurfaced in early August, while at the Tsongas Center the hockey team’s locker room is getting updated.

Image by Ed Brennen

At Leitch and Bourgeois halls, repairs are being made to the brick façade as part of the university’s deferred maintenance work. Over at the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center, the retaining wall near the front entrance is being repaired.

The university, which purchased the former A.H. Notini & Sons property in December, will begin demolition of the warehouse this summer. Official plans for the 4.5-acre property, which is set along the Northern Canal, across Aiken Street from the Campus Rec Center, have not yet been finalized by university administrators.

University Crossing

Office of the Provost: The university’s new provost, Vayda, along with three vice provosts and five administrative assistants, are scheduled to move to their new offices at University Crossing on Aug. 1.

The new office will be set on northwest corner of the building, overlooking the Howe Bridge, in space originally designed as two conference rooms and a general-purpose function room.

“This is the last of the building’s unused space,” says Facilities Project Manager Dirk van Luling, who began working with Vayda and retiring Provost Don Pierson on the floor plan this spring.

Since they have to move out of Cumnock Hall by early June to allow for construction work there, most members of Provost Office will be working in temporary space provided by Career Services and Undergraduate Admissions through July.