Northwestern administrators will hire an architectural firm later this fall to develop a design plan aimed at making the ground floor of Norris University Center more inviting.
But given the current economic situation, chances are “very slim” that a renovation will occur within the next three years, said William Banis, vice president for student affairs.
“We’re in a very uncertain environment,” Banis said. “We’ll have to be cautious in making big plans until we see how the economy adjusts.”
In the spring, the Undergraduate Budget Priorities Committee recommended a $6 million to $8 million renovation of the student center’s ground floor. For years, the committee’s polls have showed strong interest among students in improving Norris, said Weinberg senior Jonathan Kent, the committee’s chairman.
“It’s supposed to be our student center, something that we want to go to,” Kent said. “This is a place where a lot of prospective students go when they’re touring campus, and it doesn’t send the right kind of message that the university wants to go for – that we’re a cutting-edge, leading university that offers you the best.”
The university hasn’t committed to the renovation, but it is sponsoring a design study, Banis said. The study will focus on the ground floor, but it will also assess the Underground and third floor.
Architects from five firms toured Norris on Oct. 16, said Norris Executive Director Richard Thomas.
The firms will be submitting bids in the coming weeks to lead the design study, and the bids will be reviewed by Thomas and the Facilities Management Design and Construction staff, he said.
Thomas said he hopes to choose a firm by the end of Fall Quarter, with the goal of having a conceptual design plan and a cost estimate by next summer.
At that point, university leadership and the incoming NU president will decide whether the project will move forward.
According to the committee’s polls, students are interested in new restaurant franchises as well as improved seating, flooring, lighting and décor, Kent said.
Kent pointed to the Norris renovation unveiled at the beginning of Winter Quarter 2007 as a model for success. That project brought couches, a fireplace and a Starbucks to the main floor. According to the Undergraduate Budget Priorities Committee recommendation submitted this spring, the renovation increased traffic by 1,000 people per day.
Thomas said that project received positive feedback from students, and he attributes much of that to the role of students in the planning process.
“Students were pretty heavily involved in the first-floor renovations from the beginning,” Thomas said.
During a planning retreat before the renovation, more than 25 students spent a day with the project architects, he said.
To increase student input for the current design study, Thomas said he plans to form a student advisory committee in the next few weeks to look into possible changes.
The administration is interested in modernizing Norris, said Banis, calling the student center “an old building” and “dated.”
But with a tight budget, academic projects take priority, he said.
“What we’ll have to do is wait out the economic problems that we’re facing and see how we emerge,” he said. “Funding is going to be very tight over the next several years, so we’ll be looking at cost containment and cost savings, not adding to our expenses.”
Kent said he understands the difficult choices facing the university, but the committee thinks the Norris renovations are important, he said.
“What’s there right now is inadequate,” he said. “We would hope that there would be more of a comprehensive (administrative) response.”
As is often the case in budget decisions, students and administrators will have to compromise, Kent said.
“We have different aims sometimes,” he said. “We try to meet each other halfway or the closest thing to that.”
