University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Renovation work in Capen Hall to accommodate the Honors College is the first step in the “Heart of the Campus” project. Illustration: Building UB: The Comprehensive Physical Plan

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By CHARLOTTE HSU

Published: November 18, 2010

The Honors College will be relocating to the Oscar A. Silverman Library in Capen Hall, where it will sit alongside three new centrally scheduled classrooms in a section of the library that currently serves as a silent-study area.

The space, totaling about 9,000 square feet, will be closed beginning Nov. 29 for renovations that will include demolition of empty offices, the building of new walls and the installation of new lighting.

To accommodate for the loss of the first-floor silent-study area, a silent-study area will be available to students on the Silverman Library’s ground floor when they return from Thanksgiving break. That area will receive a complete rehabilitation next year, with new lighting, paint and carpets. In addition, the library will open additional group-study space on its third floor, which—along with the ground, first and second floors—will be open 24 hours a day through the end of fall final exams.

The Honors College’s new home—an upgrade from its current space in Talbert Hall—will include offices, along with a student lounge and a colloquium room. A bequest by the late mathematics Professor Samuel “Don” Schack, a long-time Honors College supporter, will be instrumental in the development of the new lounge. June 1 is the tentative move-in date, says Krista Hanypsiak, administrative director for the Honors College.

The three new centrally scheduled classrooms will be fitted with state-of-the-art technology and mobile furnishings that will give instructors flexibility in how they set up the rooms, making them ideal for seminars and other special learning activities.

”The Honors College produces some of our most distinguished graduates and I am particularly pleased  to see them moving into a highly visible, high-tech, innovative space,” says A. Scott Weber, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education.

The renovation project, scheduled to be complete next June, is a small component of “Heart of the Campus,” a university-wide initiative to build community and consolidate student services through a series of construction and renovation projects.

“Heart of the Campus” will take many years to implement.

The initiative envisions UB’s Capen Hall and Lockwood Library on the North Campus, along with Abbott Hall on the South Campus, as hubs of life. In and around these facilities, if all goes according to plan, students will be able to access an array of student services and take advantage of work spaces that could include group-study rooms, cafés and high-tech stations featuring computers and other digital technology.

The “Heart of the Campus” concept dovetails with other concepts in UB’s master plan, which envisions UB’s campuses as a “learning landscape” where the exchange of ideas takes place inside and outside of classrooms. This vibrant landscape already has begun taking shape, with the recent installation of work and gathering spaces, including computer stations, in the rotunda of Diefendorf Hall on the South Campus and informal study lounges in Knox Hall on the North.

“The idea of the ‘Heart of the Campus’ emerged in parallel with the campus master plan,” says Campus Architect Robert Shibley. “The concept was developed during the master-plan process with over 70 faculty, staff and students participating in sub-committees. That work set the broad concepts now being implemented.

“The renovation project in Capen begins to fulfill both the ‘Heart of the Campus’ and the master plan concept of the learning landscape,” says Shibley, who has been named the next dean of the School of Architecture and Planning. “It’s crucial to creating the truly lovable places on campus that will make UB more competitive.”