THE RECORD
Page 5
Students Greeted By Renovated Quad
By Paul Webber
It has happened. The Quadrangle, which is famous for Carpet Row to all of us and more than that to those seniors with a good memory, has been under construction for the purpose of renovation for the past two years and is now complete.
Planning for the project, no small task in labor, materials, and cost, began in October of 1977 with a request to Traynor, Hermanson, and Hahn Architects of St. Cloud and Hammel, Green, and Abrahamson of St. Paul, to design a plan for the aged Quadrangle. In November of that same fall, the Monastic Chapter, with the leadership of Abbot John Eidenschink, OSB, gave the go-ahead for the submitted design and authorized the expenditure of the first million dollars for the Quadrangle Renovation project. In December of the same year, Fr. Michael Blecker, OSB, President of St. John's, officially launched the all-important
Fr. Michael Blecker
Capital Funds Drive. The renovation project was off and running. Or was it?
Temporary relocation was required for the departments of History, Philosophy, Modern and Classical Languages, Sociology, Education,
Theology, and the Honors Program. This relocation of the departments naturally removed the teachers and professors from the lofty heights of the old Quadrangle. But they weren't the only ones to be relocated and strewn over the campus. The students, you and I, and our classrooms, were also included in the move.
The area around the Quad-
rangle became a disaster area. Construction debris was anywhere, and everywhere, in the court between Greg House, Rat Hall, and the Refectory. French, English, or Philosophy classes in Engel Hall were mixed with the continual sliding, crashing, and booming of wheelbarrows full of bricks being emptied into an ugly green shute connected from second and third Quad to an oversized dumpster which collected the interior remnants of a one-hundred-year-old building in a cloud of dust. Some of those who were working for their financial aid were doing just that—working; under the direction of Fr. James Tinger-thal, OSB, Director of Corporate Enterprises, the workers were putting sledge hammers to brick, picking up the tonnage of plaster with shovel or hand, chipping and sandblasting the plaster off the remaining walls to lay bare, before the eyes, the fine and handsome colored brick that we will soon be taking for granted.
Slowly, after changes in floor plans for the new offices and classrooms and the living quarters of the monks, the second and third floors of the old, distinguished Quadrangle began to take shape. Wall bracings appeared and then sheet rock. The simple, beautiful wooden staircases were taken out. To many, it was the signal that the best was gone. To others, who spent their time unaware of the action on the upper floors, the removal of the staircases was only a slight inconvenience and a casual reminder that something was indeed going on up there.
But the renovation proj ect was, by the Spring of 1980, definitely on the go. The Capital Funds Campaign continued to find donors, and the money continued to be poured into the renovation.
Carpet was laid, seminar rooms were completed, and the last of the parquet flooring was fitted into place. The office areas were finished; the classroom chairs were dusted by a diligent crew from housekeeping; and the departments were sent notices from
This room in the Quad also features a new parquet floor.
—Photo by Mader
the Office of the President indicating the dates for their return to their old, but new, offices on the second and third floors of the Quadrangle.
The "bringing home" of the various departments was done this past summer, and it has left many changes for the returning students in its wake. The Departments of Philosophy, English, History the Honors Program and the Christian Humanism Program, temporarily housed in Engel Hall, are now on the third floor Quad. The Theology Department is in the renovated Luke Hall, adjacent to the Quadrangle. Education is located on the second floor, along with Modern and Classical Languages, which used to occupy sections of the Auditorium and the Alcuin Library.
Filling Engel Hall are the Sociology Department, located on the third floor with the Government Department, while second floor is occupied by Economics and Business Administration, which moved there from Wimmer Hall. The Art Department remains on the
first floor, and Army ROTC has expanded its territory by acquiring the offices vacated by History and the Christian Humanism Program.
And so it has happened. It is now only two weeks before the end of the second year of the renovation project. The Capital Funds Drive will continue through December, ending three years after it was launched by Fr. Michael. And on September 27 (tomorrow) the dedication of the Humanities Center will mark the completion-beginning of the Quadrangle Renovation Program.
Those many persons who have worked so hard on this renovation and those who have contributed so much to it (the monies were all donated!) over the past years deserve a public thank you from we, the students. Because it was for the betterment of our educational facilities and the community, the project is something to be proud of. It is built to serve the St. John's community well; let us enjoy it by taking great care of it.
