Construction Beat Goes On

The morning after Commencement Building and Grounds gnomes came out of the woodwork to cart away the folding chairs. That day, a large hole appeared between Houghton and Widener. That day, construction began on the Pusey Memorial Library.

The hole got deeper and deeper all summer long. Luckily, Lamont Library was closed while it was converted to Library of Congress system of classification. No one could have worked in it through the dust and the noise that accompanied this summer's adjoining construction.

And it is not over. Richard Russo, the project manager at Bond Brother's Construction Company--the general contractor for excavation work and utilities preparation--said that the blasting and drilling would continue through mid-September. The company plans to be on the site until mid-October.

Summer School classes were scheduled as far away from the site as possible. Can we take what the Summer School students cannot?

While at one corner of the Yard, workmen were wielding drills and dynamite to make way for the new library, wreckers at the other end of the Yard demolished Hunt Hall to make way for a new freshman dormitory.

While through a plexiglass window passers-by watched the hole grow, others watched the destruction of Hunt Hall with interest--and perhaps a tear or two. Film teacher Stan Lowder described the building as one of "dignity, of a type that will never be built again." The building was razed despite the protests of a committee of faculty and students to "Save Hunt Hall."

At Radcliffe, construction began on Currier House the day after Commencement. The work is meant to create new rooms from common space. It is expected to be finished in time for the rooms' occupants (who were already chosen by lottery) to take up residence this month.