When former University President Henry Bienen moved out of the Wieboldt House, it needed some repairs.
“During the entire time that President Bienen was in the house, we never undertook any significant renovations,” said Ron Nayler, associate vice president for facilities management at Northwestern. “He was here for longer than 15 years, and that’s a long time with nothing substantial being invested in the house. Those systems were fairly old when he moved in.”
Before current University President Morton Schapiro’s arrival in the same year, William Osborn, chair of the Board of Trustees, did a walk-through of the nearly 100-year-old house and, along with several other trustees and the head of the educational properties committee, decided Schapiro shouldn’t move into the 639 Central St. address.
“We decided it would be best to look at what we needed to do to bring the house, because it’s truly the presidents’ house, to a point we could be proud of,” Osborn said. “Now we’re starting on some of that.”
The house is between 9,000 and 10,000 square feet, with five bedrooms, three floors and a number of other rooms that could be used as bedrooms. Renovations began about two months ago and will hopefully be completed by early June in time for commencement.
Nayler said the biggest renovation will be changing the heating and air conditioning system in the house to make it more “green.” The first floor, which will be used mostly for entertaining, according to Nayler, is being made more handicapped-accessible. The kitchen and bathrooms will be also be updated during the renovation.
Typically, presidents decorate the interior with a mixture of their own furniture and personal items in addition to what previously existed, Osborn said.
“(Schapiro) told us during the interview process he liked to have students over to the house to get to know them, and he did that at Williams,” Osborn said. “According to President Schapiro and what he would like to do, I think you’ll see a lot more entertainment, particularly of students, than what we’ve seen in the past.”
Since beginning his tenure as University president, Schapiro and his family have lived in the University provost’s old residence. True to his word, Schapiro has entertained numerous students, faculty members and visitors at his temporary home.
“While we have frequent dinners at our current house, we are limited in numbers to around 40 or so,” Schapiro said in an e-mail. “The President’s House at Williams allowed us to have groups of 70, and that enabled us to have as many as 3,000 dinner/brunch guests at our house each academic year. The project will enable us to accommodate a similar number at Northwestern.”
Medill junior Lindsay Abbassian attended one such dinner earlier this month, which was held in honor of journalist Gwen Ifill’s speaking engagement at NU.
Abbassian said she and about 30 to 40 other guests dined at the President’s current home.
She said she didn’t know the home was temporary.
“It kind of looks like your average house in Evanston,” she said. “When you walk in it’s really homey. There are a lot of personal touches I’m sure the president and his family added.”
Nayler declined to comment on the budget of the renovation project.
“We’re just trying to do what is right,” Osborn said. “I know there may be a lot of concern about what is being paid here, and that is why the trustees are trying to make certain it’s a house anybody would be proud of, but we don’t want it to go too far because we don’t think that’s the right message either. What will be difficult about this is, it’s a big older home, so all the work we need to do around the infrastructure of the house will be a big part of the price tag.”
Osborn said because they are very conscious of the construction’s budget, he and the Board of Trustees will help pay for the project if it turns out to be more expensive than expected.
Schapiro said he hasn’t yet stopped by to see the progress of the construction in his future home.
“I might very well wait until June 1,” he said. “I expect to be thrilled.”
Correction: A previous version of this article quoted a student incorrectly stating that President Morton Schapiro has “the framed original of some Beatles lyrics on the wall” of his current home. The framed lyrics are digital reproductions from originals in Northwestern’s Music Library. The Daily regrets the error.
