By Julia Leaman
leaman@newsroom.byu.edu
Backpacks, strollers and doors swinging into a traffic jam of people in a narrow, construction infested hallway.
This describes the first floor of the David O. McKay Building since early May.
With this picture in mind one could only imagine the frustration for students and faculty.
'We are doing an interior facelift,' said Mike Stratton, director of construction.
The reconstruction will be completed before Winter Semester, but even then, construction will continue with workers starting on the second floor.
Suzanne Blockburger, a senior from Sandy, Utah, said it can be difficult to enter the McKay Building. She said at one time both the north entrance and the sidewalk were blocked off.
'I had to go all the way around the building and through the SWKT,' Blockburger said.
The construction is removing asbestos, building new offices for faculty and remodeling and upgrading lights, ceiling, heating and windows. The construction project is facilitating a seismic upgrade as well in case of an earthquake.
The three newly remodeled classrooms on the first floor are going to be technology rooms featuring a control panel, computer projector and a TV/VCR which will be easily accessible for classroom use.
The reconstruction plans also include wireless Internet availability and laptop hookups.
Not only does the construction mean frustration for students and faculty, but with workers also.
With any remodeling project workers will run into unforeseen problems where they need to make minor adjustments, Stratton said.
Even with all the current inconveniences and frustrations caused by the construction, some look forward to the new and exciting changes for the McKay building.
Amy Allen, 23, a senior from Oklahoma City, Okl., majoring in international law and diplomacy, has been an employee at the McKay studio since her freshman year.
'I thinks it's excellent. Right now we are in such a technology age that if BYU doesn't adapt and change, then we will be technologically behind,' Allen said.