Some power outages have resulted from a complete shutdown of the New Hamp and Topliff electrical system in order to allow electricians to work safely, according to Director of Residential Operations Woody Eckels. The College cut the power to bring in a generator to support Topliff, causing brief power outages during the transitions, he said. The three scheduled outages occurred on Sept. 16, Sept. 23 and Oct. 14.
Eckels blamed the two unplanned outages on the Granite State Electric temporarily "bumping [the building] from the grid."
The piercing noise of smoke detectors awoke some residents at 7 a.m. when power was restored those mornings, residents said, although Eckels sent an e-mail to Topliff residents the night before giving them a "heads-up" that their clock alarms might not go off.
"Those are single-stat smoke detectors, and when they turn on and off, they might give a short chirping sound," Eckels said, promising to examine the incident.
The New Hamp renovations began last March, after the overhaul of Hitchcock Hall was completed. The new design for New Hamp required a completely different floor plan from the original structure, leaving only the exterior walls and floors in place, according to Eckels.
The Office of Residential Life is using feedback from the Hitchcock renovation to improve New Hamp's design, according to Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman. For example, much of the original wood accents in New Hamp will be preserved in the new structure after students complained that the original character of Hitchcock was lost in renovation.
The number of beds in New Hamp will decrease from 120 to about 100 when the building reopens, Eckels said. The building had formerly been home to mostly double and triple-occupancy rooms, but will now hold predominantly single-occupancy rooms and some suites, Eckels said. Kitchens, lounges and newly designed bathrooms will also be included on each floor, and the building will be expanded for more space and internal stairs, which will replace the building's fire escapes, Eckels said.
ORL does not know who will occupy New Hamp upon completion, according to Eckels. New Hamp could possibly house members of Alpha Xi Delta sorority, currently in Hitchcock, or Alpha Phi sorority, currently in the Gold Coast residential cluster, Eckels said.
Students who lived in New Hamp in fall 2007, before construction began, moved into Hitchcock when the construction was finished. There will be no such transfer come March, however, because ORL does not have any major construction planned immediately afterwards, he said.
"We do have some plans in the works, but nothing as major as the renovation of Hitchcock or New Hamp," Eckels said. "We do plan on starting some renovation on Mass Row in the future."
Eckels said this hiatus would prevent a housing shortage, especially as Brewster Hall and the Lodge will be demolished at the end of this year to make room for the new visual arts center. The break, he said, is unrelated to the current financial crisis, which has caused growth of the College's endowment to stagnate.
The completion of New Hamp will also result in a reconfiguration of residential clusters The current cluster, referred to as BRWSTLNH for the first letter of each of the buildings, will most likely be separated into the Ripley-Woodward-Smith residential cluster and the Topliff-New Hampshire residential cluster.
Over the next few weeks, the construction team will try to do as much landscaping in front of the building as possible, including re-pavement of the sidewalk, because they will be unable to complete the exterior work in the winter, Eckels said.
