A new school year comes with new buildings and facility upgrades. This past summer, two of the most notable projects on campus are the demolition and construction of Lazare House and the renovation of Johnston C.

In summer 2016, Dana Hall launched the Johnston renovation project, a multi-year refurbishment of the Johnston Dorms. Johnston D was chosen to be the first phase due to its unsatisfactory conditions, followed by JHC as the second phase this year. In this case, some of the major renovations include new paint and carpeting, movable furniture in the living room, improvements of the bathroom and kitchen, and a back-to-school deep cleaning.

Similar to last year, students in Johnston C are very pleased with their newly renovated dorm. One of the returning students, Charlene Tsai, states that “the bathrooms improved a lot in terms of the level of cleanliness.” She also indicates her preference for the “nice wooden flooring instead of the rug-covered floors” because everything looks cleaner and is in mint condition.

The old Lazare house showed signs of wear and tear, such as this stairwell with peeling paint and the bathroom wall with missing and broken tiles. Photo credit: Grace Wang

Faculty houses have some changes too. Lazare was an old house located by Wayside (on 96 Grove Street). It is now replaced by new faculty housing for two families, with each individual unit including 3-4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, 2 heating controls, and a total of 1855 feet per unit. At this point, the construction is fairly close to the end; landscape has just been finished, and most of the work left is the interior, such as plumbing and sanding the floors. “The house will be ready on October 20th for Mr. Lloyd and Ms. Cameron’s families to move in,” said Mr. Charles Breslin, Dana Hall’s chief operating officer.

“This is our first time adding brand new faculty housing,” said Mr. Breslin. “Ms. Nancy Rich and Ms. Cindy Welch lived there and they moved out, so the building was empty; during the summer of 2016, we came up with the idea of this project, and the board approved it in October.” Mr. Breslin praises the construction as a great and time efficient project; the empty house was torn down, demolished, and built a new house for the benefit of the school faculty within only 4 months. As stated by him, the total cost of this construction is six hundred and ninety thousand dollars; the senior parent gift fundraised two hundred thousand dollars, and the school’s capital budget for the remaining spent. In particular, sixty-five thousand will be used for demolition, while the rest put towards the new home.

Mr. Breslin took me on a brief tour of the new faculty home. On our way back, we ran into Ms. Sheldon, the head of the Mathematics Department. She used to live in the old house and was so amazed by the new look of this building. “I am close to Ms. Cameron, she should be nice enough to rent me a parking spot!” said Ms. Sheldon, with a laugh.

The new house, shown in this panorama, blends in well with the Dana Hall environment and will provide two faculty families with a comfortable home. Photo credit: Grace Wang