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Addition, renovation plans released for Morris Library

Daily Egyptian

Factoid: The open forums to discuss the preliminary designs are Tuesday, May 6, and begin at 2 p.m. in the Morris Library Auditorium, room 26, and 7 p.m. in the Student Center Ohio Room.

Beginning summer 2004, Morris Library will start a 50,000 square-foot expansion project.

The $29 million addition and renovation will completely revise the layout and appearance of the library. An estimated three years later, Morris will be the "center of academic excellency" in accordance with the Southern at 150 plan.

Wednesday, library officials will release the floor and exterior design plans for discussion at two separate forums.

Jim Fox, chair of the library building planning task force, said the current plans include group study areas and a coffee commons, but that they may change.

"It's not like all this stuff is set in concrete," he said. "One of the most important things that I want to emphasize is, while these plans are beginning to have some substance to them, they're still very much influx."

The current plans will expand the basement, first and second floors by 50,000 square feet. The rest of the library will be remodeled, and reorganized. Fox said the elevators would be moved for efficiency.

"Right now you come in and you don't know where you are really," he said. "The new layout with new elevators will able people to see where they are."

Fox said the President's Hall will house special collections and be used also for events and exhibits.

The classrooms and auditorium will be rebuilt on the first floor and be wheelchair accessible. The new classroom may include a computer lab and the auditorium will fit about 100 more people, David Carlson, dean of Morris Library, said. The basement will include bookshelves that fit close together and then mechanically move.

"There is a real emphasis on stacks, stacks and more stacks," Carlson said. "The basement is really the only floor in the library that from a structural engineering perspective can accommodate compressed shelving."

Coffee commons, like an Internet café, will house computers, have laptop connections and be open as a 24-hour study area and have connections for laptops.

"They put in the kinds of things you would find at Barnes & Noble, pastries and fruit," Carlson said. "They tend not to go into hamburgers, or any of that heavy stuff."

Although the project will cost over the state-allotted $29 million, library officials hope to raise additional funds. A scale model of the library addition is on display in the President's Hall. Christine Stupegia, associate director of the library, said that the comments thus far have been positive.

"Part of our mission statement, as reflected by Southern at 150, is to really make it the intellectual hub of the campus," she said. "It will make it a place that not only students and faculty can learn, but also to be a place they can really be proud of."

Reporter Lindsey Mastis can be reached at ljmastis@dailyegyptian.com