The Norlin Library has been going through an intense makeover all year and some completion dates have been pushed back a little, but the second phase of construction, the 24-hour learning commons, is still scheduled to be finished before the fall semester.
Construction for this phase of renovation will be complete on May 11 and the grand opening is scheduled for June 1, according to Megan Rose, communications coordinator for Facilities Management.
Construction for the graduate student study suite on the third floor of the library, the next phase of indoor construction, will start on May 11 and go until the last week of June, Rose said.
The learning commons will be on the first floor of the east side of the library and it will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The construction plans for the learning commons also include a Laughing Goat coffee house. The original Laughing Goat is located on Pearl Street, but no one from Laughing Goat was available to comment on their plans to open another location inside the library.
The new learning commons, the graduate studies area and the second floor research center, which was completed this past January, are the end of the inside work, according to Rose.
The renovation of the sundial plaza, outside of the library, is still in the planning stages. This project is scheduled to begin construction on May 15, and be completed on Aug. 15, just in time for the fall semester.
The sundial plaza and the inside renovations are still only a small part of the library, and there is currently not funding for a complete restoration of every floor in Norlin.
“They want to renovate the entire library but this area of it is all there is funding for,” Rose said.
The only completed room in the library is the second floor research center. It is a brand new space that offers more individualized studying areas, but some students lament the loss of the big, communal study tables.
“I miss the communal tables,” said Andrew Slack, a junior environmental studies major.
Dana McMillin, a senior international affairs and Spanish major, said she agreed with Slack.
“I liked the big tables better,” McMillin said.
Although the big tables are missed, students have also been enjoying the new, individual study tables.
“I like it; it’s really nice,” said Christina Donahue, a sophomore English and Russian studies major, in response to how she liked the new research center.
Construction can be a nuisance, especially in a place like the library, where students go to study. Libraries are traditionally sacred spaces of total silence, and construction noise has disrupted this serenity for some students.
”I was studying a few weeks ago for midterms and there was a lot of construction noise,” Slack said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Allison Doyle at Allison.doyle@colorado.edu.
