The Diplomat

December 11, 2008

Franklin & Marshall’s weekly online newsletter

A Sleeker Fackenthal

Enter the Innovation Zone.

It is a modern space for multimedia collaboration and technology support. Imagine a bright, open room with oval desks, computing stations and break-out areas.

Just upstairs is the Global Finance Lab, an uber-media room stocked with four large-screen plasma TVs and four Bloomberg terminals to track stock markets across the globe.

Welcome back to Fackenthal.

Renovations to the building should be completed in April. Faculty and staff will move into the new Center for Business, Government & Public Policy, as planners are calling it, over the summer and the building will ready for classes by fall semester.

The exterior of the building will look the same. When winter ends, landscapers will begin remodeling the grounds around the north and south entrances to the building.

Through the winter months, construction crews will be busy inside crafting a state-of-the-art building that will house the Business Organization & Society and Government departments, as well as Information Technology Services and the Floyd Institute for Public Policy.

Right now, the walls are covered in unpainted drywall. Wires hang from some of the ceilings. The floors are bare. But, it is not hard to imagine what it will look like this spring when the building will be ready for faculty and staff to move in.

The price tag to remodel Fackenthal is $16 million, the bulk of which comes from donations from alumni and other benefactors.

The College broke ground on Fackental Laboratories on Dec. 19, 1928. The building was named in honor of B.F. Fackenthal Jr., a president of the Board of Trustees who donated $200,000 toward the facility’s construction. The building originally housed the chemistry and biology departments. The final cost was $250,000.

Another part of the building was added in 1948.

“When it came time to renovate, we had to gut the building,” said Mike Wetzel, project manager with Facilities Planning & Capital Projects.

Crews stripped away the walls, electric, plumbing and removed any asbestos. The hydraulic elevator was removed and replaced with a “green” elevator that operates with gears and pulleys.

“We aimed to reduce energy costs by making the building as sustainable as possible,” said Larry Harder, associate vice president of facilities planning.

The exterior walls and roof were reinsulated with a spray-on insulation, Harder said, and all the windows were replaced with double-paned, low-e glass.

The architects have planned a modern building with multiple learning environments and varied architectural details. At the main entrance on Hartman Green, visitors will enter a foyer with restored marble floors and millwork. Enter and take a right into a two-story living room with cherry paneled walls.

“This will be a space for students to relax and study,” or watch the news on a 60-inch plasma TV mounted on the wall, Wetzel said.

From the north entrance, visitors enter the Innovation Zone. It will be the gateway to Information Technology Services and a gathering place for students, faculty and staff.

“It’ll be a real visual punch with a high-tech feel, more than the conservative feel upstairs,” Wetzel said.

Upstairs, Business, Organization & Society will own the first floor, which will have classrooms with smart podiums linking professors and students electronically. Down the hall, professors will have bright, airy offices. The Global Finance Lab is also on this floor. Wetzel said its uses don’t have to be limited to business.

“I can see where, say, on an Election Night, the government department might want to borrow this space,” he said.

One flight up will be the home for the Government Department. Again, large and bright offices for the professors and classrooms with smart podiums populate the space. The offices here have built-in bookshelves.

“A must,” Wetzel said. “They told us they have a lot of books.”

The Floyd Institute will make its home on the top floor, which offers plenty of space for staff working the phones for surveys. Quite a change from Floyd’s current offices below Appel Infirmary.

“Berwood Yost and Terry Madonna can move out of their basement,” Wetzel said. “They’ll love it up here.”

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