Wells Quad to house dorms

IU female students once ironed clothes in kitchenettes and studied on bunk beds in Sycamore Hall.

Beginning in the 1920s, the Wells Quadrangle was constructed to house primarily female students on IU’s campus.

The academic buildings are set to return to their original residential purpose within the next 10 years.

The quad includes Sycamore Hall, Morrison Hall, Memorial Hall and Goodbody Hall. Today, Wells Quad primarily houses  academic classrooms and offices, including several international and language departments.
 
The University plans to convert Wells Quadrangle to residential space after the School of Global and International Studies building construction completes in two years.

The Board of Aeons, a 12-member group of appointed IU students, recommended that Wells Quad be renovated back to residential space in its March 2012 report to President Michael McRobbie. Board members recommended that renovations begin five years from the report date.

Since Wells Quad was originally designed for residence life, board members decided the quad’s current academic focus was not efficiently serving students, 2011-2012 board member Christopher Kauffman said.   

“As evidenced by nationwide trends and trends at IUB, students often self-select to create residential neighborhoods that assume a distinct identity over time,” Kauffman said. “Given the proximity of Wells Quad to music and science buildings, it is easy to see the potential merits in building a tight-knit thematic community focused on one or both of these disciplines.”

The University’s long-term plan to convert Wells Quad back to residential space, along with plans to renovate Ballantine Hall, reflects IU Bloomington Master Planner David King’s recommendation to revitalize the “academic core” of campus, IU Vice President for Capital Planning and Facilities Thomas Morrison said.   

“If you look at the old pictures of the Old Crescent from the 40s and 50s, you see the sidewalks choked with students going to and from class,” Morrison said. “It’s the students who bring life to this campus.”

Wells Quad renovations are estimated at $60 million and will be funded by Residential Programs and Services revenue collected from students, Morrison said.

The key factor allowing the Wells Quad and Ballantine renovations is the School of Global and International Studies. When the SGIS is completed, International Studies professors will move from six primary locations into their new home, leaving many classrooms vacated.    

“We teach over 70 languages at this institution,” Morrison said. “The SGIS is an architectural project to bring all those languages and areas of study into one place.”
Even though SGIS building plans are definitive, the University cannot yet offer an exact timeline for the Wells Quad and Ballantine Hall renovations.

“There’s a set of dominoes that happen,” Morrison said. “Ballantine Hall and Wells Quad will happen sequentially. We haven’t decided which one to do or in what order yet.”

Despite the Aeons’ recommendation to begin renovations in spring 2017, Morrison does not expect renovations to begin within the next few years.

For now, the University is focusing on welcoming SGIS professors into their new home.

“Our job is not only to plan a building that does that, but to do the move management afterwards,” Morrison said. “When you bring people into one space you create a synergy. That’s a really good thing.”

The SGIS building will cost roughly $52 million and is funded primarily by monies from the Big Ten Network. The remaining half of the cost will be funded by research programs and other sources, Morrison said.  

Further reason for renovating Wells Quad is that the classrooms are substandard and experience many maintenance issues, Morrison said.

Prior to making its recommendation, the Board of Aeons examined Wells Quad through surveys and focus groups with students.

It sent out a survey to 2,000 IU students and received completed responses from 518.
The board concluded that both students and faculty would benefit from Wells Quad serving as a residential center.

However, some students disagree with this decision.

Junior Kimberly Chomyn is taking an Italian class in Sycamore Hall this semester and said she enjoys the space.  

“I don’t think these classrooms are subpar,” she said. “This is a nice little chunk of campus that everyone should enjoy, not just freshmen.”

Her Italian professor, Cara Takakijan,  said she is not looking forward to losing her classroom in Sycamore Hall.   

“I actually really like this space,” Takakijan said. “I like the classrooms. They feel intimate, which for a language class is great. We’re usually smaller and we do a lot of interactive things.”

Takakijan said she worries the SGIS concept could dilute the individuality of the Italian program.

“I think that there definitely are benefits,” Takakijan said. “A lot of the language and culture programs already do similar things. It’ll be great to be together. I worry slightly that more individual aspects of each culture study or language class will get lost.”

The University is aiming to accommodate everyone in this process and will continue to seek faculty and student input, Morrison said.

The plan is a long-term view and is a decision that has not been taken lightly, Morrison said.

“Scheduling 40,000 students into classrooms is both art and science,” Morrison said. “I think if people work at it, we can find good solutions.”

Follow administrative reporter Hannah Alani on Twitter @alohalanii.