Nanci Peteau

This summer, the sounds of busy construction could be heard all over campus. One of these major changes occurred on the west side of SDSU, in Hansen Hall.

The renovations to Hansen Hall, which came with a price tag of more than a million dollars, were numerous.

In 2003, the third and fourth floors were renovated and moveable furniture was added to each room, but first and second floors remained the same.

This summer, not only were first and second floors given new furniture, but the whole building was given a facelift including new lighting, painting and flooring.

In addition to these changes, 12 rooms on first and second floors were given connecting doors between two rooms. This allows the resident hall director to open the adjoining door, allowing tenants to move furniture between the rooms, if all four occupants of the two rooms agree.

For example, one room can contain the beds and dressers while the other room will be considered a living room/study area. The existence of the new quad rooms gives students the freedom to make rooms look less like the typical dorm room.

The bathroom area was also given a makeover.

“With a new floor plan, each of the six showers has its own dry-off area in addition to completely new sinks, toilets and stalls,” said Residential Life Assistant Director of Facilities, Michael Kervin.

He also added that since the bathrooms were totally gutted and renovated, this was the main focus of the summer projects.

Some students are enjoying the new, more open bathrooms.

“The bathrooms are fabulous and the showers are awesome,” said sophomore Kelly Pokett.

Pokett resided in Hansen last year on a floor that already had new furniture so that is no change to her, but she enjoys one of Hansen Hall’s other new additions: laundry facilities on each floor. Every floor has one washer and two dryers each, allowing students to avoid the cumbersome climb to the basement to do laundry.

The original plan was to renovate the rooms in all seven dorms within three years. At the end of the second year of renovations, already four of the seven halls are finished, including Brown, Pierson and Weneta.

“We intend to renovate Mathews, Binnewies and Young next summer, allowing us to finish in the planned three years,” added Kervin.

Students now can enjoy the new features of the renovations of halls such as Hansen but can also look forward to changes all over campus for the next school year.