The Henry F. Hall building is slated to be renovated and upgraded over the next few years, but the process is complex.
The dysfunctional escalators between the mezzanine and fifth floor are a continual source of frustration for Concordia students. The estimated completion date of the current renovations for the escalators between the lobby and fifth floor is September 2012, according to university spokesperson Chris Mota.
Timothy Lazier, a history and English specialization student, remarked that “how students see the building depends on what floor they are on and if they can actually get to it.”
Lazier said that he’s had classes scattered throughout the Hall building and noticed the difference on the newly redone floors.
“Up to the seventh floor, it’s really ugly but I have a bunch of classes on the renovated floors and they’re nice,” said Lazier. “It feels like you’re in a different building.”
The interior and exterior of the 12-floor, cube-shaped building is gradually deteriorating due to time, weather and general use. In 1998, the university started renovations to improve the overall state of the Hall building, but students like Cleo Donnelly are not impressed with the current structure. “I get that it’s old but there’s nothing overly special about it. They should just tear it
down and build a new one,” she said.
According to Martine Lehoux, the university’s director of facilities planning and development, Concordia will refurbish the untouched floors in the near future, but it can only be done when the floors are not occupied.
This explains why certain floors of the Hall building were revamped in the last decade while others have yet to undergo major repairs.
When they were once occupied by various science departments, the eighth, eleventh and twelfth floors were renovated when the Richard J. Renaud Science Pavillon at the Loyola campus opened in 2003. The western section of 7th floor was upgraded after the department of applied human sciences moved to the Loyola campus in 2005.
The escalators between the sixth and seventh floors have been working since last Thursday, according to Mota.
The university is scheduled to improve the amphitheatre on the ninth floor this summer and during 2013, upgrades are planned for the amphitheatre on the first floor and the western portion of the basement that belongs to the engineering department.
Projects awaiting funding approval include renovations for the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh floors of the Hall building for 2014 to 2015.
