MOUNT VERNON — Merner residence hall reopens this month on the Cornell College campus after a yearlong, $3.6 million renovation to modernize the 1936 building.
Exterior changes include new insulated windows, a new roof and a new porch on the east-side main entrance that returns the building to its original design.
Inside changes start with an elevator, a feature unavailable in Cornell’s other residence halls. Also new are the electrical, heating and plumbing systems; tile in bathrooms, student rooms, the kitchen and entry areas; carpet in hallways and lounges; fire sprinklers in each student room and common areas. On the first floor, the kitchen has been upgraded and the spacious lounge received new furniture, but the wood paneling and non-functioning, marble fireplace were retained. Just off the lounge is a multimedia meeting room. A study room across from the lounge is equipped with data ports to accommodate laptop computers. A first-floor information desk will be staffed evenings.
Each student room has new modular oak furniture that can be arranged in a variety of ways. The heating system allows individual rooms to request temperature settings controlled by a central computer in Cornell’s Facilities Management Office. Two energy-efficient, overhead fluorescent lights per room are controlled separately, so one student can light half the room for study while a roommate sleeps.
More than 95 percent of Cornell students live on campus. Merner, which opened as a men’s dormitory but became coeducational in 1978, accommodates 128 students on four floors. More than 75 percent of Merner residents are members of Cornell’s Living & Learning Communities. This new program involves 170 students in 21 “communities,” or groups, across campus who devise projects related to their area of interest — such as art, literature, cultural issues and children’s issues — that give back to the Cornell community, the local community or the global community.
Merner is one of nine residence halls on campus. Prior to the Merner project, the most extensive residence hall renovation was in Bowman-Carter, where work was done on the heating and electrical systems and new furniture was added to the first-floor formal lounge in the mid-’90s.