As the school year comes to a close, many Loyola students and faculty members may ask the same question: what happened to the demolition of the Danna Center?
Demolition was scheduled to start this summer, but nothing has begun.
According to Robert Reed, assistant vice president for Student Affairs, the university still has not come up with a definite plan for the Danna Center.
“There is a huge matrix of decisions that need to be made, and a lot of things to consider when deciding on a construction plan,” Reed said.
The plans are still there, but nothing has been approved or cleared yet, Reed said.
There are four options to pick from when deciding on the construction plan for the Danna Center. The first is to knock down the Danna Center and expand it, as well as add a residence hall on top of the building. The second is to build a smaller Danna Center with a bigger residence hall on top of it. The third is to build the Danna Center and do part of the residence hall, but leave the rest for later. The fourth is to build a smaller Danna Center and a stand-alone residence hall.
There are also several dilemmas that go along with tearing down the Danna Center.
“We need to think about how to fund it and how to phase it in. There can only be so much construction going on on-campus at once,” Reed said.
Loyola would also need to figure out where to put temporary facilities for all of the things being displaced, such as the food services, post office, Student Health Services, Office of Student Affairs and the bookstore.
“One thought for that was that we could get a temporary bubble like Tulane did when they had construction going on, and put the food services in there,” Reed said.
With construction currently going on in Thomas Hall and plans recently being approved for construction on Monroe and the Tom Benson Jesuit Center, the Danna Center construction seems to be on the back burner.
Students should expect a few improvements in the fall because there are smaller projects that will be going on this summer, Reed said. One project is the implementation of free laundry services in the residence halls with an online system that monitors the machines.
“The new system will allow students to determine when machines are available and when their laundry is done,” Reed said.
The university will also renovate Biever Hall’s laundry room and TV lounge on the first floor. There will be expansions and renovations in the Orleans Room, which will add more seating and reconstruct the dish-return station. There will also be construction in Cabra Hall to improve it for students living there in the fall. Thomas Hall construction should be finished by the fall, and all of the offices from Marquette Hall will move into Thomas Hall, leaving more room for classrooms in Marquette.
“During the summer, we can only do small improvements and construction: painting, plumbing, etc. Major construction takes longer. Every summer we try to make some improvements,” Reed said.
Kristen Himmelberg can be reached at [email protected]
