Law library renovation on fast track

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    By CHRISTINA REYNOLD

    Renovations to the newly renamed Howard W. Hunter Law Library are running smoothly and will bring more space, natural light and new technology to the J. Reuben Clark Law Building.

    To accommodate a growing collection of books, the renovations will more than double the library’s original 40,000 square feet to become 100,000 square feet, said Craig Barrus, assistant manager of the BYU construction center and coordinator of construction for the law library.

    The renovations should cost approximately $11 million, all of which has been contributed by private donors such as alumni, said Constance Lundberg, law librarian and associate dean of the law school. BYU has not traditionally asked so much of alumni, but graduates are still playing a part. This is wonderful and thrilling, she said.

    “Construction is a year ahead of schedule,” Lundberg said. She attributes this to “a wonderful contract manager, Craig Barrus, … who worked hard to be sure we weren’t slowing things down.”

    Construction began May 15, 1995, and completion is projected for November of this year, Barrus said.

    One of the welcomed changes to the library will be an increase in natural light from windows on the north side of the addition.

    Some were frustrated with the old library because it was so dark, Lundberg said. North-facing windows will provide a comfortable atmosphere where people can work productively, she said.

    “On the north side, we tried to provide as many windows as possible,” said Warren Jones, in-house architect at BYU. The windows open onto sloping landscaped hills, he said.

    The addition is meant to blend in with existing architecture, said Brent Harker, director of BYU Public Communications.

    “There will be slit windows on the east and west sides,” Jones said, and the building will be made out of precast concrete to match the existing building.

    The floor space of the library is being increased on the second and third floors for additional shelving and study areas, and the circulation area will move from the third floor to the second floor, which is the ground floor, Barrus said.

    The circulation desk is being relocated to the second floor because that is where the most traffic is, Jones said.

    Contractors have been renovating one floor at a time, moving the collections around so books can be accessed, but sometimes it is still inconvenient to retrieve them, Barrus said.

    Careful planning and coordination with the contractor has been the key to being able to keep the library open and functioning during construction, Lundberg said, explaining “you can’t study law without books.”

    At least one copy of the essential books are on the shelves while second copies and low-use books are in storage elsewhere on campus and in space donated by Nu Skin International, Lundberg said.

    The library will be completely closed for about a week, however — probably at the end of February or the beginning of March, when the circulation desk is moved to the second floor, she said.

    Also because of construction, 125 parking spaces have been lost, 100 of which will not be replaced. Most law students also lost their study carrels until construction is completed, Barrus said. However, temporary loss of study carrels will end when new carrels, each having their own computer hookup, are installed.

    The biggest change at the library will be the high-tech component, Lundberg said.

    “It will be a SMART building, meaning adaptable to computers,” where the walls and floors will have conduits with fiber optics, she said.

    Every study carrel will have a hookup that connects to university networks, the Internet, Local Area Networks, and the Harold B. Lee Library systems, she said.

    Lundberg said she is working on a project to create a centralized library service for the 14 academic institutions in Utah. The institutions will all use the same programs to facilitate interlibrary research. When this comes about, it will also be available from every carrel, she said.

    A large computer lab on the fourth floor will include an instructional room for library research and computer classes, Lundberg said.

    The library will house 40 group-study rooms to be used mostly by law students but they will also available to other BYU students, especially during construction on the Harold B. Lee Library, Lundberg said.

    The library will have a small microfiche room and a small rare-book room with climate controls, she said.

    Summing it up, Scott Cameron, associate dean of the law school, said the library will be “very user-friendly.”

    Along with renovations, a seismic upgrade to the entire building is being done, said Mike Stratton, manager of BYU construction.

    In renovation, the new areas must be in higher seismic zone categories, but upgrades are not required for existing buildings, he said.

    Half of the upgrade to the law building was done last summer, Lundberg said. The remaining half will come in a separate contract, with bidding starting this spring or summer, Stratton said.

    Construction of the original law school was completed in 1976, and with the exception of the compact shelving added to the first floor of the library, this is the first major renovation, Barrus said.

    The renovations have occurred in steps, Lundberg said. In 1988, the university decided a renovation to the library would be done; the planning budget was then approved in the early 1990s, she said.

    Lundberg said the renovation, which was primarily to accommodate growth of the collections, is designed to sustain spatial needs for the next 20 years. However, with the move toward higher levels of technology that do not call for as much shelf space, the law school hopes the renovations will last longer she said.

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