Needed renovations succumb to budget concerns

Yale itself is screaming for help. Water pipes are bursting on Old Campus, heaters are failing in a number of buildings and classrooms, and old omnipresent plumbing and electrical wiring are crying out for renovations. But the scaffolding and din of machinery around Branford, Science Hill, and other buildings are evidence that the University is hesitantly addressing these needs.

In the last decade Yale has begun major renovations and hatched a number of future projects, including those for the residential colleges and Science Hill. The basis for these plans is a complicated web of decisions, wants, needs, financing, and practical considerations.

CAYTE PUSHKAREVA/YH Construction proceeds on formerly neglected Yale buildings slowly but surely due to limited funds.

University Planner Pamela Delphenich explained that construction got a significant boost when President Richard Levin, GRD '74, arrived in office. "[Levin] and Joseph Mullinix, vice president for finance and administration, decided that we needed to address programmatic [academic] needs as well as facility needs in a comprehensive way," she said. "Rather than looking at buildings individually, we developed area plans to look at groups of buildings that are related, like the residential colleges."

These plans look at current and future needs and recommend solutions. Sometimes this involves the complete renovation of a building, and at other times the construction of a whole new building, which may involve the demolition of an old structure. "We identify the highest priorities, and a plan is developed to be implemented over the next 10 to 20 years as funding becomes available," Delphenich said. "All of those plans get incorporated into long-range capital plans."

But not every construction need can be foreseen. "Although we try to capture all the anticipated needs within the long-range plan, there are always new requirements which today are unanticipated," Delphenich said. "For instance, neither the recently completed Center for International Finance at SOM [School of Management] nor the proposed new engineering building was anticipated five years ago, and neither was included in the long range plan. Obviously, we need to be flexible."

Emergency and mechanical situations also arise that change plans and make new projects a priority. For example, sometimes a building fails, and fixing only the broken part is less efficient than a renovation of the entire structure.

One such case was Lawrence Hall, which underwent repair last summer and will again this summer, according to Ronald Zacks, a project manager of facilities, who oversaw the project. "The windows were in very bad shape and needed immediate attention," he said. "It was becoming dangerous and [the work] just had to be done."

Several groups work together from the initial need or desire to renovate buildings, to the creation of formal plans and the start of construction. "Programmatic requests have to go through the Provost's office," Delphenich said. "The Pro-vost's office needs to determine first that a real need exists and then if there is adequate funding."

Investigation into the condition of individual buildings comes directly through the Office of Facilities, and can be instigated by tenant complaints or by the advice of the Physical Plant. These buildings are examined as an estimate cost of renovation is taken to a review committee. There are two main committees that deal with all of these possible projects. The first is the Capital Program Management Group (CPMG), which is chaired by Mullinix and includes representatives from the budget office and central and medical campus facilities. This group deals with all projects but can only approve those under one million dollars.

"Projects over a million dollars are forwarded to the Capital Subcommittee of the University Budget Committee (CSUB)," Delphenich said. "CSUB reviews them and then recommends forwarding them to the Corporation for approval. Every capital project must go through this process."

Even when a project has been approved, time and money are often a problem. While the exterior and windows of Lawrence are completed, construction on the dormitory will continue this summer. "The nature of the work is such that given the summer between Commencement and the incoming freshmen moving in, we couldn't do all the work in one year," Zacks said.

Money is even more of a limitation. Buildings in extreme need of repair must compete for available dollars, according to Delphenich. Welch Hall was slated for renovation last summer along with its neighbor Lawrance, but the fixes never materialized. "Welch wasn't done because there had to be constraints on the capital budget and it was put off for a year because it was just not as critical [as Lawrance]," Zacks said. He added that after a pipe burst on Tues., Jan. 18 and other problems with the plumbing, heat, and power arose, Welch renovations became a priority.

This does little to comfort Kathryn Banakis, MC '03, whose common room was flooded by the burst pipe. Banakis was told by physical plant workers that because the pipes were never insulated, the cold weather made the pipes freeze and burst. The power in her suite went out and the heat did not work for a week as a result. "To not have insulation is not just a renovation concern, it's a safety code one," she said. "They could have insulated with fiberglass at some point in there."

Back to News...