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Specifically, the 16-month makeover will:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Revamp the interior to make Chase a campus hub for most student services;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Improve accessibility, wayfinding, and circulation, notably through the reconfiguration of building entrances and the installation of new stairways and a third elevator;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Renew the building\u2019s utilities infrastructure, portions of which haven\u2019t been operable for years;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- And add comfortable, technologically enabled multi-purpose spaces.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Chase will reopen at the start of the 2023\u201324 academic year. The most conspicuous results of the project will be the two rebuilt entrances on Campus Avenue and one on Franklin Walk, where new floor plans will improve access, both visual and physical, into the building. In a dramatic change, the main entry on the avenue, near the Kenison Gate, will be lowered to ground level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, a flight of steps there brings you up into the building, where you find yourself enclosed in a stairwell. After the renovation, you\u2019ll enter Chase onto a landing that invites entry deeper into the building \u2014 thanks to new sightlines, new stairs, and better exposure for the existing elevator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2022\/03\/220120-CHASE-HALL-CAMPUS-AVE-ENTRY.webp\")
An architect’s rendering of Chase Hall\u2019s main Campus Avenue entrance, which will be rebuilt at ground level during the 2022\u201323 renovation for easier building access. (Courtesy of Canal 5 Studio)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n A similar interior arrangement is planned for the other end of the building, including the current and future home of the Office of Intercultural Education. This will entail the installation of a new central stairway and elevator. These changes will result in increased visibility for the OIE, a vital campus gathering place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The building entrance onto Franklin Walk (the extension of Franklin Street that runs between Chase and Muskie Archives) will be landscaped and furnished for al fresco relaxation and equipped with a new ramp that will make the existing loading dock ADA-compliant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A project goal is to reinvigorate Chase as a student resource that will be busy 24 hours a day. Built as a campus social center, the hall retains that identity, but there was a period when several of its student-focused functions moved elsewhere \u2014 Commons in 2008, and Post & Print first to Lane Hall and then, in 2016, to the new Kalperis Hall along with the College Store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chase remained busy after dark with student activities, such as events in the former dining hall, and student organizations like the Student<\/em> newspaper and the Outing Club, but the building became a little too quiet during the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2022\/03\/220121-CHASE-HALL-OIE-1.webp\")
This rendering shows the new elevator serving the east end of Chase Hall, near the Office for Intercultural Education. (Courtesy of Canal 5 Studio)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe took a look at the campus to figure out, with all these functions being separated, how could we reinvigorate Chase,\u201d explains Pam Wichroski, Bates\u2019 director of capital planning and construction. \u201cThat was when we recreated the [current] vision for Chase, which was to have more student-focused programs in the building to make it more active and viable 24 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bates brought in Boston\u2019s Ann Beha Architects to help reimagine the building\u2019s role. The 2014 relocation of OIE into its popular Chase location provided a spark of inspiration, and a few years back, the college brought in other student services as well \u2014 Campus Life, Residential Life and Health Education, and some elements of the Purposeful Work program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Post-renovation, the Office of Community Standards and the entirety of the Center for Purposeful Work will join the other service offices in Chase. These will occupy the former site of the College Store in the basement and the equivalent area one flight up, near the loading dock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2022\/03\/220228_CCU_Chase_3997_dlh.webp\")
The former Dining Services loading dock and surrounding area will be beautified and converted into an ADA-compliant entrance in the 2022\u201323 renovation of Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n And Chase, of course, will remain the site for student activities and organizations, which will find new levels of comfort, polish, and technological capability at their disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Chase is closed for the renovation, most current occupants \u2014 student organizations, Campus Life, the OIE, and Residence Life and Health Education \u2014 will occupy temporary quarters a couple of blocks away, at 96 Campus Ave. Situated next to the Campus Avenue Field, this modern building belonged to St. Mary\u2019s Regional Medical Center and housed offices and a daycare center until its recent purchase by Bates. (The Bobcat Den will be closed during the project, but will reopen in its longtime space thereafter.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project architect for the Chase project is Canal 5 Studio \u2014 a Portland, Maine, firm whose prior Bates experience includes Bobcat Den renovations in 2012, the new OIE offices in Chase in 2014, and new Lane Hall quarters for the Bates Communications Office in 2018. Consigli Construction, the college\u2019s longtime construction management partner, will handle the Chase project even as it wraps up the Dana Hall renovation this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starting in June, the Bobcat Express pickup location and the intercity bus stop in front of Chase will be displaced by construction fencing, with new arrangements to be announced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Steady progress<\/strong>: Across the Historic Quad from Chase, the renovation of Dana Hall remains in what Bates Project Manager Chris Streifel describes as \u201cthat routine of just steady progress.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
\n![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2022\/03\/220228_CCU_Dana_3961_dlh-900x600.webp\")
New wallboard and wall paint in Dana 119. The green cable on spools at left will be used for digital network connections. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot changing or a lot of drama, really. So that’s good,\u201d says Streifel. \u201cThat\u2019s what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This doesn’t mean that nothing has happened during the nearly two months since we last checked in (although we would like to believe that we’re essential to any construction work on campus).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quite the opposite. For instance, since last week, Dana Hall has been getting its electricity through a brand-new circuit-breaker panel, which is the size of a refrigerator and lives in the basement. (Which is no place for a refrigerator.) It replaces a unit that measured about 18 by 36 inches and was last seen sitting on the concrete floor awaiting oblivion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which leads us to point out that a fair amount of recent progress in Dana is discernible by what\u2019s no longer there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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