The Board of Trustees recently finalized the decision to renovate the Boyden Library. The Library, undoubtedly one of the most utilized places on campus by both students and staff, will undergo a complete revitalization that will reconfigure and refurbish the existing internal layout.
According to Head of School Margarita Curtis, the estimated cost of the renovation is set to be $11.5 million; and construction will begin as the school year ends, and it will end in December of 2015.
“While the exterior of the building will remain the same, the internal space allocation will change, and the interior will undergo a full refurbishment process,” Dr. Curtis explained. “Most notably, we will move the College Advising Office and the Academic Dean’s offices to the second floor. The new Center for Service and Global Citizenship will also be located on the second floor, and the basement will house an innovation lab.”
The decision for the renovation was prompted by the need of a newer, more technologically advanced building. “The current library was built more than forty years ago, and it was in need of serious maintenance work,” Dr. Curtis said. “We were also aware of the fact that in recent years, with the impact of technology on teaching and learning, libraries have evolved into much more dynamic, open, experimental and collaborative spaces than in the past.”
Dr. Curtis also discussed how they evaluated the new plans: “Since we had to address deferred maintenance, we decided to conduct a comprehensive review of the function and purpose of the library and to consider how we could align this space more intentionally with our current curriculum and programmatic needs. The Library Research Committee spent a full year visiting libraries at other schools and colleges and considering new possibilities for this space.”
Finally, Dr. Curtis concluded, “The current design is the result of a broad collaboration among teachers, staff, students and ARC, the architectural firm that has been contracted for the project.”