Renovating the Livingston Campus Student Center will no longer take place in the beginning of 2008. Over the summer, administrators rolled back the construction date to June of that year due to budgeting problems, said Neela Patel, the assistant manager of operations and events for the building.
"In the construction world, that's actually not that bad," she said at an evening meeting of the Livingston Campus Council on Monday. "It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be when I first got here."
The University is engaging in one aspect of the renovation project by the end of 2007: removing five sewage tanks that were left over from Livingston's days as an Army barracks from the building's vicinity, Patel said.
Livingston Campus council members were not notified of the rollback during the summer, said LCC Public Relations chair Daniel Gutierrez. Although he said he was disappointed the council was not notified, he said he wants to give the administration the benefit of the doubt.
"I want the project to be as successful as possible and if it takes six extra months-so be it," Gutierrez said.
Patel said the part of the Livingston Campus Student Center undergoing renovations would be closed for a year starting in June. At least part of the food court, though, will remain open.
She brought to the meeting a three-dimensional cardboard model of what the student center will look like once it's been renovated.
The front of the future building has an entrance located by the back of the current building and lounge space will take over the current game room, she said.
The new game room will be about the size of the game room in the Busch Campus Center, Patel said.
Another room will house what Patel called a collaborative learning center. She said the space would have computers, which will be useful for meetings of more than one group.
Patel said it is unclear whether the project's budget will cover the costs of her office's plans for the student center.
To ensure the cost of the renovation remains in line with its budget, those overseeing the project have asked the architects and designers working on it to produce a detailed description of how all the money has been spent so far, Patel said.
She said the renovation would cost approximately $450 per square foot.
Jacqui Whitfield, the external vice president of the LCC, said the entire renovation would include 20,000 square feet.
The architects working on the renovations have focused on including spaces in which students can gather, Patel said.
One gathering space, Patel said, is about the size of the main lounge in the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus. Those in charge of the renovation, she said, are considering installing windows that would allow occupants of the room to see out of it, but through which those outside of the room could not see in.
When the renovation is complete, the student center will feature an enclosed patio in which there will be dining space, a stage and room for another as-yet-undetermined food vendor. Near this area, there will be an outdoor gathering space.
The plan for the second floor features a new dining area and two, 1,000-square-foot, multi-use rooms.
There will also be a walkway connecting this area to the Tillet Dining Hall.
The building will also feature a new convenience store that would be approximately 1,000 square feet larger than the convenience store at the Busch Campus Center, Patel said.
Because the new, larger store will be in the front of the building, the student center's handicapped spots will need to be moved, and the loop around which University buses travel will have to be redesigned and placed elsewhere.
Plans also include a lobby area that could be open as early as 7 a.m. in which students could gather while they wait for buses.
Patel has been with the Livingston Campus Student Center since the summer. During the years before she was assigned there, she worked at several other of the University's student centers. +
Patel said after she began working on the student center's renovation project in July, a lot of it has changed from what was originally discussed.
One important component of the renovation project will be testing out what furniture to buy for the building, Patel said.
"We'll need people to come sit on chairs and tables and to throw them around, because we don't want something that will break in a year," Patel said.
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