the new kirner-johnson

This June, after seven years of planning, construction workers finally broke ground on the Kirner-Johnson building expansion and renovation project. Paul Hagstrom, Associate Professor of Economics and Co-Coordinator of the on-campus planning committee for the social sciences, speaks on behalf of the government and economics professors when he says that the current KJ, first constructed in 1968, is in need of serious improvement.

“We teach 50% of our classes outside of KJ because there are a limited number of classrooms available,” he explains. “There are currently only seven usable classrooms and not many of them can hold forty students. This is problematic because we tend to teach pretty large classes.” Tour guides, recognizing these spacing and layout issues, tend to gesture towards rather than enter the building with prospective students. This tendency, however, will inevitably change once the KJ construction is complete.

Steve Bellona, the Associate Vice President for Facilities and Planning (and Assistant Indoor & Outdoor Track & Field programs), has been working closely with Professor Hagstrom, among other faculty members, to design KJ’s interior in ways that best accommodate the professor’s needs. “We’ve met with the social science faculty about a number of different plans that would help develop their program requirements,” says Bellona. The principal construction plan is to improve both the quality and quantity of KJ classrooms. “The KJ project has two construction phases,” Mr. Bellona explains. “The first phase involves KJ’s addition, while the second concerns its renovation. Both projects should be completed by the fall of 2009.”

From June 2007-August 2008, construction workers will add a 39,000 square foot building to the current KJ that extends from the breezeway to the road that currently meets the Martin’s Way path. The road will be transformed into a circular plaza, allowing the Martin’s Way path to pass through the plaza and continue all the way up to the breezeway.

The extension of KJ will hold seven new classrooms, five of which will be case method classrooms. The new construction layout will also benefit Hamilton’s popular Nesbitt-Johnson Writing Center, Oral Communications Lab, and Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center, by providing them with more space for tutor conferences.

After KJ’s addition is completed in August 2008, construction workers will commence the renovation of the original KJ, which they expect to complete by August 2009. The expanded and renovated parts of KJ will provide a total of seventeen classrooms, all of which will be equipped with 21st-century communications technology. According to the Excelsior Campaign’s website, this updated technological equipment will include “digital cameras on tripods, data projectors, wireless keyboards and mouses, a flat-screen projector, white boards (what’s written on them can be printed and handed out at the end of a presentation), and teleconferencing capabilities that enable students to team with groups on other campuses. Video cameras, activated by motion, will be built into the walls and ceilings,” enabling professors to record lectures and students to record presentations and speeches if they wish to review and critique them later. Construction workers will also be installing a four-foot tall waterfall on the ground floor of the expanded KJ, which will produce sounds resembling those of a babbling brook.

Physical Plant will also be implementing minor aesthetic changes to the KJ’s exterior. “We’re working to enhance KJ’s current Ben Thompson design by introducing [to it] a new copper siding material,” says Bellona. Architect Charles Belson, from the Ewing Cole architectural firm, has developed the designs for the KJ addition. Bellona explains that the copper siding will render KJ’s walls slightly green in color. KJ’s green-colored walls are ironically, though unintentionally, in keeping with its green-friendly features. “We’re designing the building in accordance with LEED certification guidelines,” Professor Hagstrom explains. This means that the construction materials will be purchased locally in order to minimize the amount of energy required to transport them to Hamilton. Furthermore, Physical Plant is shipping KJ’s heating and air conditioning system from Germany, where such systems tend to be more energy-efficient.

Of course, this large KJ expansion and renovation project comes with a large price. Dick Tantillo, Vice President for Communications and Development, says that the Excelsior Campaign is working to fundraise a total of $7.5 million for the KJ project. While to most this number may seem daunting, Mr. Tantillo remains optimistic. “We are highly confident that we will meet, if not exceed, this target rate,” he explains. “The balance of the project costs will be funded through a combination of bonds, borrowed money, and gift funding,” he adds. Karen Leach, the Vice President of Administration and Finance, has been particularly involved in bond funding, as well as an active participant in the KJ project planning committee.

Overall, Steve Bellona believes that “the KJ expansion and renovation is going to be very exciting for campus. It’s been a challenging project, but at the same time it should be very rewarding to see the end result of the construction plans we’ve been developing over the past seven years. I think the KJ changes will have a significant impact on the way the social science facility is viewed, and that it will change the face of the south campus.”

Professor Hagstrom is looking forward to seeing the new Kirner-Johnson building functioning as one extended classroom. “The incentive of the KJ project is not to increase the number of social science majors, because that number is already very high. Rather, it is to increase the quality of the educational experience that students taking social science courses receive. We also want to provide faculty with the resources necessary for them to offer the best possible teaching they can.”

In addition to the new Kirner-Johnson, renovation plans are also tentatively underway for Beinecke Village, the Burke Library, and the List Art Center.

-chelsea mann '09