Bemidji State News Reporting S'11: BSU's Face Lift Will Continue

Birch Hall Renovation to Start This Summer

By Tony Barber and Max Hodgdon

Currently Birch Hall is two-wing dorm with cement walls and has two beds in every room. It is a perfect example of when you think of a traditional college dormitory. Residential Life organized focus groups made up of students and discovered that their main want is that they wanted to change Birch Hall by “making it more of a north woods feel,” Said Birch Hall Director Ayleen Leonhardt.

An architect, Bentz/Thompson/Rietow Incorporated, was consulted to discuss proposed changes to make to Birch Hall.The Renovated hall will feature more wood facing instead of the traditional cement. There will also be an improved game room and fireplace. The game room will stay on the main floor instead of moving to the basement. “The students felt that it was very important to keep the game room on the first floor,” said Leonhardt.

In recent years, Bemidji State University has been working to give the campus a face-lift. With-in the last four years BSU has made improvements to Linden, Satgast, and now Birch Halls. As soon as this summer, BSU will be renovating the oldest residence building, Birch Hall, which was built in the 1950s.

Birch Hall is located at the heart of the BSU campus. According the Bemidji State Web site, students who are sophomores or older can live in Birch Hall. It has always been a popular hall for upper classman because there is a shorter walking distance to the academic buildings.

There are many people involved in the renovation that are excited to start the Birch Hall project. Residential Life made use of their master plan to organize the project. The project was first initiated through student focus groups about what they would like to see changed in Birch Hall. After compiling information from students with in the focus group, they started to put plans for Birch Hall on to paper.

Though construction will not be building any new rooms, they will gain the space where the Student Center for Health and Counseling is now. When the entire project is done the Student Center for Health and Counseling will be moved to the first floor of Cedar Apartments. This move will add more room for student housing in Birch Hall and it will not hurt the Student Center for Health and Council.

Back in 2007 Residential Life chose to remodel Linden Hall. One of the new major features of this hall was the addition of suites. Suites offer more privacy for upper classmen. The new Birch Hall will not feature suites and Residential Life is aiming for a warmer, more community like feel.

Birch Hall sits on top of one of BSU’s biggest assets used by the campus community. The tunnel system affords people the opportunity to walk in climate-controlled area rather than face the Minnesota weather. Since the tunnel runs under Birch Hall, that section of tunnel will also be renovated. The walk way will be larger and better lit. Also, the wires that currently run along the ceiling will be covered up with new architectural features.

The Birch Hall renovation isn’t just for cosmetic reasons; there are several deficiencies that are in need of being fixed. This hall still has a significant amount of asbestos, a hazardous material, in the ceilings. The current electrical wiring that is in the building is far past its scheduled update. According to the Director of Residential Life Dale Ladig, the current wiring system would fail in less than five years.

As Birch Hall is being renovated Residential Life will be reopening Maple Hall for the 177 students for the whole year. For the first time since the 2007 2008 academic year Maple Hall will be a full time dorm. The hall has been used sparingly to accommodate housing needs for flood victims from the 2009 flood that hit the Fargo, North Dakota area. As well as a surplus of students signed up for on campus housing. However all of these uses have only been temporary.

The cost of deferred maintenance is approximately three million dollars per year. The cost of deferred maintenance was simply too high and needed to change. “We realized that one way to get rid of deferred maintenance was to renovate,” said Ladig.

When this renovation is complete the maintenance for Birch Hall will see a significant drop in cost for the next five years. However as with any construction project there will always be things that get overlooked and need to be corrected. “You’re always going to find something,” said Ladig, when comparing the Linden and Birch Hall renovations.

The cost of the project will come to six million dollars just in construction costs alone with roughly another two million dollars in other expense. The money for this project came from a bond sale “MNSCU sold revenue bonds for building projects across the state,” said VP of Finance and Administration Bill Maki. BSU received $6.5 million from this sale.

All of this bond money is going specifically to the Birch Hall renovation. However, BSU is required to pay back debt to the state for the next 20 years. According to Maki, BSU will be paying back roughly $600,000 per year.

Though this is an expensive project students will not see an increase in tuition. However, part of their current room and board fees will be used towards the Birch Hall renovation. Residential Life has always taken a percentage of room and board fees and put them toward regular maintenance of the residential buildings.

The renovation is scheduled to take one year to complete. Residential Life wants to have Birch Hall ready for the fall of 2012. There will be a show room opened for tours of the completed rooms some time in February of 2012.