Michael Stang
by Joe King
When the last residents have moved out of Grant Tower C this spring, the building will be shut down so work can begin on a major remodeling project to make the building safer, more comfortable and more attractive.
The project marks the first major residence hall renovation at NIU since the remodeled Stevenson Towers were reopened in 2000.
Specifics still are being finalized, but when the work is completed (tentatively scheduled for fall 2011), improvements to the tower will include:
The NIU Board of Trustees approved a budget of $14.85 million for the work at its March 26 meeting. The project will be paid for from bond fund reserves.
“This is a necessary investment in our housing stock,” NIU President John Peters told the board. “Higher education has become an increasingly competitive business. Much of our revenue now is dependent upon tuition, so we must undertake projects like these to remain competitive with our peers around the state.”
As things stand, said Michael Stang, executive director of NIU Housing and Dining, most of NIU’s residence halls are at a competitive disadvantage.
“Just about every university across the state has some building program in process,” Stang said. “The expectations of students have changed significantly since this building opened in the late 1960s, and our halls are very outdated by comparison to those elsewhere.”
One of the primary features of the remodeled tower will be increased flexibility, Stang said.
“Right now all of the furniture in the rooms is bolted down and students have no input on how the room is arranged. When this project is done and new furniture and fixtures are in place, they will have many more options in how their room can look.”
Another change will be the much-improved community spaces on each floor, which designers hope will be as comfortable as the family rooms they left behind in their parents’ homes.
“We are really trying to respond to the needs of students,” Stang said. “We want this to be a place where students want to live, not only for their first year on campus but for a year or two after that.”
No timeline is in place to remodel other towers in the complex.
However, Housing and Dining administrators hope that as work is completed on C Tower, another wing of the building will undergo remodeling. Modernization is the eventual goal for all four towers and the main floor lobby, which will be transformed into more of a “main street” as exists in Stevenson Towers.
Completing all of that work could take a decade or more, Stang said.