Portland State’s campuses are getting a major face-lift this summer, and many students are noticing. Walking in the Park Blocks from Lincoln Hall to Shattuck Hall, one encounters three separate construction projects going on, with several entrances and exits blocked off from pedestrians.
“There’s just so much construction on campus, it’s kind of hard to walk around nowadays,” said sophomore Aliana Ross-Stewart.
One of the buildings under extensive construction is Cramer Hall, which houses the University Studies Program and several administrative offices, including the president’s, and the music room.
The first sign of the remodeling began as early as April, when PSU’s Facilities and Planning crew took down all the light fixtures on the ceilings. Next, students found some restrooms on the second and third floors inaccessible and several lockers were taken out at the start of summer term.
Pedestrian access was also blocked off between the Smith Memorial Student Union and Cramer Hall.
Most students are unsure of what is going on with the building.
“I don’t know what they’re fixing, but hopefully the elevator because it’s really slow,” said junior Jerry Green.
Frank McBride, construction project manager for Facilities and Planning, helps make sense of all the projects currently taking place inside the building.
“There are several different things going on,” McBride said. “One is to redo the corridor on the first and third floors … going through some of the restrooms and upgrading them … we are also taking out old lockers to make seating areas and put in a new ceiling.”
According to McBride, the new ceiling will feature energy efficient lighting and the crew will also redo the roof of the building, which has been leaky in the past.
In addition to maintenance projects, there are also several upgrades and new additions to Cramer Hall.
“We added in a couple of areas for students to sit, taking out a few old lockers to create little nooks for seating areas,” McBride said. “Another project is going through some of the restrooms and upgrading them to be more compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. We have to raise and lower some of the fixtures, depending on what the code requires.”
McBride said the crew will upgrade half of the restrooms in Cramer. In addition to the restrooms, McBride said they are adding new classrooms on the third floor as well as maintaining some existing ones.
“We’re going to have six new classrooms by taking rooms that were used as offices,” McBride said. “We’re taking some of the other classrooms and fixing the seats in them, repainting them, making them more modern.”
The Cramer Hall remodel is funded in part from the Go Oregon! state stimulus plan, also referred to as Senate Bill 338, which was signed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski earlier in the year.
According to McBride, who also manages several other projects around Portland State, including the Market Center Building and the Millar Library restroom changes, individual projects inside Cramer range from $200,000 to $1 million.
For students who have classes in Cramer, making it in and out of the building with all the construction going on is a bit unpleasant. McBride said it is a difficult process moving people and classrooms around with the crew working at the same time.
Seth Dillon, a new student at PSU, said, “I usually try to get out of Cramer as soon as I’m done with class because it’s just so dark and crowded in there right now.”
Other students said they’re glad to see construction taking place in the summer.
“At least right now there are not a lot of students going to summer school, so by the time school starts, hopefully they’ll be done and we can walk around again,” said Michelle Armstrong, a junior who practices piano in Cramer daily.
McBride said that most of the projects should be done by the fall in time for the start of the school year.