Walking by the Loyola School of Law, it’s impossible not to see and hear that the four-story building is undergoing a major physical change.

The 16,000 square-foot addition will include a lecture theater, 12 offices and three seminar rooms. The new building will also add another floor to the Law Library and allow the original building to be reconfigured to include more room for support staff and extra space for the Law Clinic.

The expansion ensures that the School of Law complies with American Bar Association regulations regarding the amount of space for the student population. Enrollment will not be increased beyond the current student body of 850, according to a Loyola press release from 2004. The new facility is meant to improve conditions for current and future law students.

“It gives us more flexibility in scheduling, and in turn gives students more choices in selecting schedules,” School of Law Dean Brian Bromberger said.

Construction on the new building, located at the corner of Pine and Dominican streets, began last spring. The construction was originally intended to be finished by spring 2007, but it was delayed by Katrina. Now it’s hoped that the addition will be done by fall 2007, said Bromberger.

Katrina has caused a shortage of labor and supplies for the construction operation, but things are going as well as can be expected, Bromberger said.

The construction is visible outside the School of Law, and several students have found it noticeable inside as well. The noise level depends on what classroom you’re in, and can vary pretty widely, said Jeff Goldmen, a third-year law student.

“It can be kind of distracting, but professors mostly talk through it,” said Barbara Siefken, a third-year law student.

The first floor office of Dean of Admissions K. Michelle Allison-Davis is close to the work being done on the addition. The noise hasn’t been too loud since the building was razed last spring, she said.

“The construction has been going on for almost a year now, so we’ve learned to deal with it,” she said.

Most of the disruption is coming not from the work on the addition but instead from work being done in the current building.

“The building construction doesn’t bother me, it’s the stuff inside the building, the bathrooms and stuff. I have a professor that’s hard to hear anyway, so the noise doesn’t help,” said first-year law student Stacy Leingang.

There have been no complaints from homeowners near the school since the construction began, said Bromberger. The disturbance has been minimal for the other buildings on the Broadway campus as well. Cabra Hall is far enough away that there is no noise at all, said Beth Halel, music junior and Cabra’s senior desk assistant.

“There might be a little problem with driving around the construction to get into the parking lot, but we haven’t had any complaints from residents,” she said.

Bromberger acknowledged that the current phase of the construction is likely to cause some difficulties for students and faculty.

“The hardest part is not with the construction of the new building but reconfiguring it with the old building, with regards to the noise,” he said.

The construction is halted, however, when it might seriously interfere with the students’ work.

“There is an absolute noise prohibition during exams,” Bromberger said.

Despite the annoyances raised by the large-scale project, Bromberger considers the construction itself beneficial.

“It’s fantastic for morale. Katrina brought doom and gloom, and the building represents progress in the middle of doom and gloom,” he said.

Said Allison-Davis: “The noise hasn’t been bad enough to run us out of here, and I think it’s going to be a great addition to the law school. It will give us a lot more class rooms and a lot more space,” said Allison-Davis.

It’s easy to be bothered by the sounds of construction in the middle of class, said first-year law student Andrea Rubin.

“But I appreciate that it’s being built, because it will be better for us.”

Lindsey Netherly can be reached at [email protected].