Baldwin Wallace University recently reopened the newly renovated First Year Area, the Davidson Commons.
The renovations made to the residence halls 63 Beech Street and Klein Hall were finished late this summer, just in time for the start of school, while Saylor Hall is still being renovated.
The first year complex, once completed, will about 180 students in four and six person suites, which share bathrooms and a small common area. 63 Beech contains an enclosed study room, a centralized mailroom (for both 63 Beech and Klein residents), a laundry room, one kitchen, and a large, glassed-in pavilion where many first year residents hang out. There is also an indoor bike storage area in this building.
Klein also has an enclosed study room, a laundry room, a main lounge with a kitchen and two additional small kitchens located on the 2nd and 3rd floors repectively. The buildings each have an elevator, are handicap accessible, and have geothermal heating and cooling systems, similar to the one found in Ernsthausen Hall.
“Right now living in this residence hall is great,” freshman Cody Mastnardo said. “My favorite part of the building is probably the pavilion because everyone can just hang out there. I’ve been in a couple of the other dorms on campus and I’m so happy I ended up here.”
Alicia Monday, Hall Director of 63 Beech, Klein Hall, and 21 Beech (the Honors residence hall further down Beech Street), believes Saylor Hall will be another building that will house first-year and transfer students, and it is expected to be reopened sometime in January 2014.
The layout of Saylor Hall is expected to look identical to the layout of Klein Hall.
“The first year students are extremely lucky to be living in an environment like that,” junior Sarah Reichert said. “I lived in Saylor my freshman year and it would have been convenient to have such a nice area to study back then.”
Although upperclassmen students like Reichert have had different reactions about the renovations to 63 Beech and Klein Hall, Monday does not believe any division will be created between students living in the different residence halls.
“I don’t think it makes a major difference,” Monday said. “Really, you like buildings for different aspects, such as meeting new people; it’s not just the room.”
As of right now, Saylor Hall, Klein Hall and 63 Beech Street are the only first-year residence halls to be renovated in the past few years. North Hall, also designated as a first year area, underwent renovations about three years ago to receive new lighting, have the built-in furniture and carpet replaced, and be repainted.
The $11.2 million renovations on the Davidson Commons were made possible by funding from the Ohio Historic Preservation program that was available to Baldwin Wallace University. The rest of the funding for this project came from private gifts and bonds.
“I think these new renovations set the standard of where the campus can go,” Monday said. “There’s this expectation that this is where we’re standing. Now where can we go from here?”
