As part of a $3 million renovation plan completed this week to maximize existing office space, four departments in the School of Speech have switched buildings or expanded in their current facilities.
The moves were prompted by a lack of room for new faculty in the Theatre and Interpretation Center, Speech Dean Barbara O’Keefe said. To accommodate the theater department, the performance studies department moved from TI into the former dean’s office in Annie May Swift Hall. O’Keefe switched her office to the Frances Searle Building.
The dean’s move completes the remodeling of Frances Searle, which now also contains the communication studies department and additional student advising services. The building’s interior, formerly a drab gray, has been replaced with bright blues and greens and a prominent main staircase has been added.
Speech senior Erin O’Connor said the renovations have improved the building.
“The building is a lot more modern, and I think they did a good job with the dean’s area,” O’Connor said. “Having a staircase in the middle of the building is a great convenience. It’s a lot easier to get where you need to go.”
O’Keefe said practical problem-solving dictated the switch.
“It wasn’t a solution to put the theater faculty in Frances Searle,” she said. “It ended up being the easiest to just move the dean’s office.”
She also said Frances Searle, which houses the school’s communication disorders, audiology and hearing sciences, learning disabilities, and speech pathology departments, contained empty office space due to a poor design.
Chicago architectural firm Valerio Dewalt Train redecorated 90,000 square feet of space, project manager Heather Wasilowski said.
Jim Webster, Speech’s senior associate dean who oversees facilities management, called Frances Searle’s previous design “an acquired taste.”
“The architects really worked miracles on a building sorely in need of a miracle,” Webster said.
The communication studies department now has a permanent home on the second floor of Frances Searle, complete with classrooms offering new technology to students. The department previously had been divided between the basement of Harris Hall and 1815 Chicago Avenue.
The renovation’s first phase is complete, but O’Keefe said more expansions are planned. The school recently kicked off a $5 million fund-raising campaign to add a wing to TI for additional classroom and rehearsal space.
“People seem excited,” O’Keefe said. “We want to expand our acting program, and there is a small available patch of space for us to do it.”
O’Keefe said the only concern about moving the dean’s office is the distance between North and South Campus. Although her office is now located among the more science- and technology-related classes, O’Keefe said she will try to stay in close contact with the arts and performance departments.
“Most faculty and students I see are the ones in the same building as me,” she said. “Because I don’t want to lose touch with the arts, I’m going to spend one morning each week in the other buildings and hold office hours there.”
Chuck Kleinhans, a professor in the radio-TV-film said he doesn’t feel O’Keefe’s move to North Campus will impact his department.
“It’s more convenient for us if she’s on South Campus, and more faculty are here,” Kleinhans said. “But if she’s happy, we are happy.”
Members of the performance studies department said they love their new office space in Annie May Swift. Prof. Paul Edwards said the historical significance of the building, constructed in the late 1800s, ties into the department’s past.
“This was a logical place for the performance studies faculty to move to,” Edwards said. “We are excited to be in a building so important to the history of our school.”
Edwards also said he expects the relationship between the performance studies and R-TV-F departments to increase because they now share a building.
“We still have a collegial relationship with the theatre faculty, but now we see more of R-TV-F,” he said. “We are looking forward to more collaborations with them.”
