THE STETSON-SAWYER RENOVATION PROCESS

Briefing Paper, January 2001

When David Pilachowski came aboard as the new Librarian, the Stetson renovation process was reactivated in the summer of 2000, with Pilachowski and Brown serving as co-chairs of a reconstituted committee. The first order of business was to commission a thorough review of Sawyer’s future needs. To that end, the College hired an experienced consultant, Jay Lucker, who presented his report in December 2000.

Meanwhile, changes in senior management at Williams—notably, the installation of Morton Schapiro as president in July 2000—prompted a revision of the renovation committee’s charge. The committee was asked to re-examine the possibility of moving the faculty and staff of the Center for Foreign Languages, Literatures, & Cultures, currently housed in Weston Hall, to a renovated and expanded Stetson. Because an increase in overall faculty size was deemed likely, additional offices had to be added to the building program. The present and future needs of emeritus faculty have also assumed a higher profile in the planning process. Finally, the intervening two years have seen considerable expansion in the College’s Office of Information Technology (OIT). OIT, which faces a critical shortage of space in Jesup Hall, has made a compelling case that any major renovation of Stetson Hall and Sawyer Library should incorporate a substantial upgrade in the size and sophistication of spaces allocated to computing resources. The net result is that the sum total of offices needed in a renovated Stetson Hall has increased from the 126 used in our 1998 calculations to something closer to 175, considerably more that the 94 offices currently in use.

The following is a brief, schematic summary of the planning process and key issues we have identified to date. The report’s final section notes areas where we would especially benefit from the insight of Williams Trustees. Issues specifically related to the future of Sawyer Library are covered in a separate document authored by David Pilachowski.

Architectural components of Stetson Hall

· Original 1923 Library structure, including library stacks in building core

· 1956 addition, originally library stacks but converted to offices in 1976

· 1962 Roper addition, now housing faculty offices & Office of Career Counseling (OCC)

· Others campus buildings directly affected by these plans: Fernald and Seeley, currently housing Dept. of Economics; Weston Hall, currently housing Center for Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (CFLLC)

Administrative units represented in Stetson Hall

· Faculty (approximately 94 offices) and secretarial staff

· Custodial staff (reports to Buildings & Grounds)

· Central Office Services

· Office of Career Counseling (OCC)

· Chapin Library (reports to President)

· Archives & Special Collections (reports to College Librarian)

· Office of Information Technology

Key problems of Stetson

· Systems reaching end of service life; wiring, lighting, and ventilation inadequate in offices and other units

· Maze-like internal plan confusing to students and staff; different floor heights of three sections create cul-de-sacs

· Minimal student facilities and presence in building (e.g., no student lounge or study areas)

· Low ceilings in 1956 addition (legacy of original use as library stacks) prevent improvement of poor lighting, HVAC, and compliance with contemporary building codes

· Cannot accommodate additional faculty or emeritus faculty

· Space inadequate for the Office of Career Counseling, Central Office Services, Archives/Special Collections, Chapin Library

· Consistent failure of library stacks to meet national climate-control standards for document conservation; valuable Chapin and Archives collections currently at some risk of deterioration and environmental damage

Options Considered by Renovation Committee

(1) Removal of Chapin and Archives/Special Collections into a major Sawyer addition. After extensive review, prospects for pursuing this option are weak because of legal stipulations of the Chapin bequest and the Sawyer’s own need for additional space and functional improvements.

(2) Removal of Career Counseling to larger and more appropriate quarters elsewhere on campus. Still unresolved, but there seems to be growing consensus that OCC would be better served in a more central location.

(3) Reconversion of 1956 addition to stacks, its original purpose. This idea has been definitively ruled out after a careful inspection of the building by the library consultant.

(4) Gutting the 1956 addition and removing every second floor to meet contemporary building codes. The architectural consultants rejected this as impractical after assessing cost and engineering variables.

Conclusions as of Fall 2000.

• The inadequacies of Stetson Hall argue against a minimal renovation. Renovation of 1956 addition would be prohibitively expensive because of ceiling-height problem and difficulties of integration with rest of building.

• Any renovation of Stetson proper must preserve the architectural assets of the original 1923 building, including the present Faculty Lounge and other common areas. In contrast, the 1956 Addition and Roper Annex, and possibly the core stacks area of the building, are suitable for razing and reconstruction.

• The significant increase in the number of faculty offices foreseen in this project—a number that has grown from approximately 124 in 1998 to 175 two years later—raises questions about whether the project should be envisioned as a single structure. Building mass sketches developed by the consulting architects suggest that a Stetson of this scale would be ungainly and badly out of step with Williams traditions. In 2000, then, deliberations have shifted toward prospects for constructing a new office building that would house about 80 faculty and related teaching/public spaces in addition to a substantial renovation of Stetson Hall. Both of these projects would have to be coordinated with a necessary expansion of Sawyer Library that would presumably begin when the Stetson renovation process is completed.

Unanswered questions

(1) Where should a new office building be located? The most obvious location is the undeveloped area to the north of the small plaza between Stetson and Sawyer; other possible sites include areas south of Stetson in the direction of Hopkins and immediately west of Hopkins on Main Street.

(2) What kinds of physical and functional interconnections should link these three buildings? Initial engineering assessments indicate that extensive underground connections are not practical, but above-ground options should be considered.

(3) Assuming that the construction is to take place north of Stetson/Sawyer as noted above, what will be the impact on the Center for Environmental Studies and other buildings in the vicinity? The location also raises questions about on-campus parking, already problematic, and overall College plans for accommodating vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic.

(4) What is the most effective way to integrate information technology into the buildings without duplication of resources? Sawyer Library is clearly a key campus technological hub, but with library space at a premium OIT should have a significant presence near but probably not in the library.

(5) What kinds of spaces will be needed in the classroom/office building of the future?

Michael F. Brown, for the committee