Just north of Harris Hall lies a huge hole in the ground, a hole that students who are away from campus for the summer will never see. Orange fences brighten many spots on Northwestern’s campus, but this one is particularly noticeable.
Construction workers will be working through the beginning of September to reroute the underground brick tunnels that begin at Harris and continue east toward the lake, said Jeff McLennand, a job site superintendent for Pepper Construction Co.
McLennand said the tunnels have to be done by Labor Day. The tunnel construction work will affect other major construction projects on South Campus.
McLennand said the tunnels are being rerouted beginning at Harris and University halls and continuing east to just north of Locy and Fisk halls, where the McCormick Tribune Foundation Media Center is being built. The tunnels include old steam lines, air lines, water lines, fiber optics and electrical lines.
He said the rerouting is necessary because the tunnels, as they currently lie, are under the sites of the proposed Kresge Centennial Hall addition, set to begin in the fall, and the Tribune Center.
“The goal is to house most of the (Weinberg) departments in one building,” said Ellen Hohmann, department assistant at Weinberg’s classics department.
The philosophy, writing arts, writing program, and religion and Jewish studies will be making the move from houses on Sheridan Road to Kresge. Additions to Kresge primarily will include office space plus a coffee shop, Hohmann said. The new Tribune center will house Medill’s broadcast department.
“All of this work is to bring everything up to date,” McLennand said.
McLennand said Tribune center is being built on the site where NU’s first steam power plant was located. Many of the tunnels have been around since that time.
Many NU students have been affected by the work in the highly trafficked spot.
“It’s disruptive,” said Crystal Patterson, a Weinberg senior. “It’s annoying, but at least they are doing it while students are gone. It just seems like a lot right now.”
Landon Marshall, Weinberg ’01, didn’t understand what the construction was for.
“I think it’s amazing how many projects they are coordinating around campus,” he said. “Viewing Northwestern as a corporation – for any corporation to pull something off like this is truly amazing.”
