MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College’s summer campus improvement projects include the fine arts facilities, a total makeover of the pedestrian mall and renovations to four of the nine residence halls.
McWethy Hall will reopen in late summer as the new home for the art department, featuring the new Peter Paul Luce Gallery, teaching studios and student studios. Classrooms and faculty studios and offices will be on several levels. An addition will include kilns for firing pottery.
The new 250-seat theater addition to Armstrong Hall opens in early fall. Armstrong Hall will be vacated this summer as renovation work begins to transform the building into a new home for the music and theater departments.
Meanwhile, the campus pedestrian mall will be replaced with a 16-foot-wide walkway made of concrete pavers. Distinctive lighting and, in the fall, approximately 75 maple trees will be added along the walkway. A “chapel garden” featuring ornamental pear trees and a limestone terrace will be installed.
During the renovation, all visitors to campus should avoid the pedestrian mall. Instead, use sidewalks on the north side of campus and alternate entrances to buildings along the pedestrian mall, such as the south entrance to Cole Library and north entrances to The Commons, Law Hall and Old Sem. Lighting along the mall has been limited due to construction, so pedestrians should use caution if they are in the area after dark. The pedestrian mall project should be completed in early August.
Aside from the fine arts and pedestrian mall projects, Cornell will spend $1.3 million on a variety of campus work, especially in the residence halls, over the summer. In West Science Center, a cadaver room will be built in a second-floor lab.