Miami Quarterly

Issue date: 12/12/09 Section: Scene

Laws Hall, once the most popular building on campus, is now forgotten, abandoned. Its former students, future millionaires, have moved onto better things. Unable to compete with the new business school’s golden trashcans, high-tech classrooms and food court, Laws sits in its shadow.

 

While Laws may never return to its glory days as home of the country's sixth (and soon to be first) ranked business school, it's not forgotten. Big plans are in store, with renovation beginning in January 2010. By next November the former business school will take the place of Brill as the engineering, science, business and psychology library.

"We've always been consumer focused, and we felt that a renovation of this library was needed," says Jerome Conely, assistant dean of university libraries. "I think it's a space we're going to be proud of."

The renovation will be in two phases. The first will be a complete renovation of the basement and first floors, starting in January. The second phase, a renovation of the second and third floors, won't begin for another five years.

In the original plan made in 2006, Laws was supposed to be renovated at once, with funds from the state of Ohio and the university budget. In late 2007, the university withdrew its funds after its budget was hit by the recession, leaving the state as its lone funder.

"We had to drastically change our plans because of the budget crunch," says Ted Christian, project manager for planning and construction for Miami's physical facilities department.

The first phase of the renovation will be a complete makeover of the basement and first floor. The basement will hold all the books in compact shelves and the first floor will be the main area of the library. It will include new study rooms, work areas and computers. All the walls will be removed, resulting in the building becoming unrecognizable from the old business school students knew so well.

"We are making some radical changes to the interior," Christian admits.

During the first phase, the second and third floors will not be renovated. Library offices will move into the business school offices on the second floor and the IMS department will move into the former P&G center. The third floor will host offices for the classics and religion departments (watch out for the two-way mirrors when you go to office hours). When the second wave of funding comes from the state, the second and third floor offices will be completely redone to better suit the needs of the different departments, including new floors and furniture.

Conley predicts that Brill will most likely be taken over by various science departments and be used for more lab space to take some of the burden off of Hughes Hall.

For now, Laws remains vacant and is preparing for its big debut by getting all the non-hazardous but still unwanted asbestos removed from underneath the floor.

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