The Deans and Assistant Deans

In preparation for this weekend’s reunion, the pictures of the deans and assistant deans are now hanging in 35 Park Place!

35 Park Place: A Home for Honors Part 2

In Part 1 of this post, I wrote about the remodeling of our building, 35 Park Place. In Part 2, I want to answer the question, where has this remodeling gotten us?

Throughout the construction, my common refrain was that the new space was going to transform how we exist in our building. After occupying the remodeled space for about a month now, I’m delighted to report that it has indeed transformed HTC in several important ways.

First, one of the changes I made to the plans I inherited was to make what was originally conceived as just the new common room into a multipurpose room. Initially, the room was to be divided into two areas, a sitting area and a dining area. These spaces were to have demarcated by a design in the carpet (became too expensive to do), raised ceilings (which we kept), and some columns (I nixed them). Instead, we have one large space.

Most of the time the new space will serve as an area for our students to study, relax, talk with one another, and just generally hang out. Dean Fidler first created a common room in order to build a greater sense of community among HTC students. The new common room is the next step in expanding her vision for that community:

We furnished the room largely using surplus furniture, which meant that we spent less than $500 to outfit the entire room. (Blinds have also been installed since this picture was taken.) Our students now have more room than ever to hang out in the building.