ALICE LAM Jose Garcia moves boxes into
Haines Hall. The Chicano Studies Center will move in Monday, and
the rest of the building will open Aug. 14.
By Rachel Makabi
Daily Bruin Contributor
Haines Hall will reopen this week after two-and-a-half years of
seismic renovations just as the Men’s Gym prepares to close
for the same reason.
The anthropology and sociology departments are moving back into
Haines after temporarily relocating to Hershey Hall. The Chicano
Studies Research Center and the Center for African American
Studies, which were in Murphy Hall, are also set to move into
Haines.
John Sandbrook, assistant provost for the College of Letters
& Science, said that since the 1994 Northridge earthquake,
several campus buildings have been seismically remodeled, including
Powell Library, Royce and Moore halls and the UCLA Medical
Plaza.
“We are still dealing with the after effects of the
“˜94 earthquake,” Sandbrook said. “There are other
buildings on campus that still need to be renovated.”
The $20 million Haines project, funded primarily by the state
according to Sandbrook, also underwent minor remodeling, with the
addition of air conditioning and new floors, ceilings and
lighting.
CAAS outgoing director Richard Yarborough said the construction
took as long as he expected.
“We were kept informed periodically about the
deadlines,” Yarborough said. “We have had this date for
about a month.”
In the next few years, other buildings will undergo similar
seismic restorations, including the Men’s Gym, Kaufman Hall,
the Acosta Training Center, the Life Sciences building and Kinsey
and Dickson halls.
In September, the Men’s Gym will be the first to begin
construction, causing departments and organizations to
relocate.
The Reserve Officer Training Corps will move into Wooden North,
Student Affairs will move to Kerckhoff Hall and the dance
department will move to the Westwood Replacement Village near Lot
32.
Antonio Sandoval, chair of the Campus Retention Commission, said
funding for the $23 million renovation of the gym will come from
the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the state, the University
of California and the Student Programs, Activities and Resource
Complex referendum that raised student fees by $84 per year
starting in 2000.
Sandoval said it is necessary for construction to begin.
“There is fallen plaster, cracks in the walls and tiles
missing from the ceiling,” he said.
Director of Design Services Marc Fisher said renovations in the
gym will be mainly inside and won’t affect the
building’s outer appearance. Construction will probably
impact Bruin Walk between the Morgan Center and the Wooden Center,
he said.
The Men’s Gym inner structural changes will result in more
office space for campus groups housed there.
The locker rooms and racquetball courts inside the gym will be
converted into meeting rooms for student groups, Sandoval said. And
the gym, which will be renamed at a later date, will have room for
tutoring, peer counseling sessions, student workshops and
computers.