The long-anticipated renaissance of the official Pi Kappa Alpha house is now on “an indefinite delay” after Evanston officials halted construction due to permit problems, said Pike president Dan Solera.
The house, at 566 Lincoln Ave., was supposed to be finished by August, marking what would have been the first time since 1997 the fraternity would have occupied the house.
City officials wanted more details about the plans than the fraternity was prepared to provide, said internal vice president Jay Zeschin. Construction was stopped because the house was not up to Evanston housing codes.
Solera also said he did not expect the long wait. He blamed the delay on a “combination of the chapter’s enthusiasm to see the house done coupled with a slow bureaucratic process that we can’t speed up.”
Solera learned Pike wouldn’t be able to move into the house in July and said he scrambled to find housing for members who had planned to live there during the year.
“We were confident it would happen and all of a sudden it wasn’t and we had 26 guys who needed housing,” Solera said.
The majority of these members opted to move off campus. The 10 remaining students are spread around campus in Kemper Hall, Foster House and the transfer dorm in the former Kappa Sigma house.
Northwestern University is providing these members quarter-to-quarter leases.
The tentative move-in date is set for Dec. 1. But this is “not a deadline for anybody,” Solera said.
This development hampers some of the rush activities Pike was planning this fall.
“(We’ll) try to find another venue,” Zeschin said, who added that it was disappointment that the house wouldn’t be ready for Fall Quarter.
Not having a house complicates planning weekly chapter meetings. Many members who hold cabinet positions moved off campus.
“A lot of people are going to have to make that extra effort for walking from off-campus to on-campus,” Solera said. He added that Pike might relocate their meetings from Norris University Center to the Technological Institute.
Pike returned to NU in 2001.
Construction on the Pike house began this March. Brandon Conrad, last year’s Pike president, told The Daily in March that the house would be gutted and remodeled over the next five months to make it suitable for the fall.
The construction process began after disputes over lease stipulations. These issues were settled between the university and the Gamma Rho Housing Corporation, a group of volunteer Pike alumni who hold the lease on the house. The lease on the Pike house is due to expire in 2036.
The process had an estimated price tag of about $800,000 and would have been done in two phases. The first phase was the actual gutting and reconstruction of the house. The second phase would have added aesthetic touches.
Both Zeschin and Solera emphasized that this setup has not dampened spirits.
“Even without the house,” Zeschin said, “we plan on being a large force on campus.”
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