Gilman Hall has been under construction for as long as the freshmen and sophomore classes have attended Hopkins. The News-Letter caught up with Martin Kajic, Facilities Program Manager and Gilman project manager for KSAS. Kajic led this reporter through Gilman demonstrating specific changes that have been made to the building to make it more accessible and environmentally friendly, as well as restorative upgrades designed to maintain the historical charm of the building.
The building's renovations are on track to be complete by summer 2010, to allow use during the fall 2010 semester. "It will be ready for the fall [2010] academic semester, and I think the official ceremony won't be until October at a Trustees' meeting, but that is yet to be determined," Kajic said.
The building is also on track to gain a Silver LEED Certification from the United States Green Building Council. The silver certification is above bronze certification, but below gold and platinum level certification.
"Gilman is the first renovated building on the Homewood campus that is attaining a LEED certification," Kajic said.
The LEED certification is a holistic process that awards points for many different things. Gilman will utilize cutting-edge technology to attain its ranking.
"We're putting in energy efficient systems that are controlled through smart controls and occupancy sensors. If somebody is in their office and they leave and they forget to turn off their lights or heat, that will go off if it's not occupied for a period of time. So we're not wasting energy," Kajic said.
A new mechanical basement was dug. Lighting levels will automatically adjust based on ambient light. "We are also, in certain areas of the building, where there's a lot of light coming in, such as the Hut and perimeter offices doing daylight harvesting. Daylight harvesting sees the amount of natural light coming into a space and starts to slowly dim your lights, so you're having energy reductions there," Kajic said.
Electricity isn't the only utility that will be saved. "We're putting low flow toilettes in the building-so we're achieving water savings," Kajic said.
No project is truly green without recycling. "We're reusing some materials. The stacks had marble in the aisle ways and we are going to reuse that in the new atrium's floor," Kajic said referring to the five story high book stacks that flanked both the Hut and Donovan Room.
The stacks were literally stacked-providing structural support to the floor above. The stacks were replaced floor by floor by driving in steel supports from the top, building new floors one at a time. Replacing the stacks has added room for faculty and administrative offices, classrooms, seminar rooms, restrooms, and a few mechanical rooms.
"One of the big things we did not have in Gilman was a variety of classroom spaces to accommodate different needs," Kajic said.
Feedback from student groups and the registrar indicated the need for a variety of classroom sizes.
A new 145-seat lecture hall now sits the ground floor above the new basement, in the location of the old bookstore.
Energy conservation is not the only area that uses new technology. The new and restored classrooms have gone high-tech.
"The lecture hall and the Donovan room upstairs have Hodson-style technology. All the other classrooms or seminar rooms have a baseline, where there's a projector, DVD player, VHS player, and an overhead camera."
Before the renovation, Gilman was not easily navigable. Corridors dead-ended and staircases often only spanned a floor or two. New ovular staircases will mimic the style of the original circular staircases unfit for emergency egress use.
Though shaped more like the letter "O", Gilman's pathways resembled more the letter "U". "You couldn't make the whole loop except on the ground floor. To get across you had to walk the whole way around the building," Kajic said.
In order to fix this, the construction crews moved some rooms around. "We pushed the old Donovan room to the west, raised this floor up so it's at the same level. Now we have a full circulation," Kajic said.
Access to the terrace was provided by converting a room for English department grad students into a corridor.
The Donovan Room, previously tiered, was leveled to provide American Disabilities Act (ADA) access. It is also undergoing a makeover.
"It had dated blue curtains that were always drawn because it was the largest room in Gilman for Film and Media to shoot films and have the capacity for students that they needed. So, now that we have a lecture hall, they can do their films there, and this becomes a nice classroom with a nice view of the dell off behind us. It's a little better flavor to the building," Kajic said.
The Donovan Room is an example of how restorative techniques have been used to preserve Gilman.
"Wherever we have historical rooms, we are putting the molding as it was-plaster cast, and the ceilings get plaster as it was back then. And our windows will get refurbished. All the other windows on the perimeter of the building are new thermal pane windows. They are wood windows as well because we wanted to maintain the historical character of the building," Kajic said.
Storm windows will be added to the perimeter of the building to protect the historical windows and provide better insulation.
Underneath the atrium area in the center of the building, above the lecture hall, there is a new archaeological museum. "It will be lined with cases," Kajic said.
Sunlight will illuminate the museum area by reaching around the floor of the atrium level, down into light wells that bound the museum.
The center of the building previously served no point other than providing light to interior offices. The roof of the bookstore, now the floor of the museum, was useless.
"If you walked down on it, it was shaky," Kajic said.
Now, above the museum, a glass enclosed atrium has been erected.
An enclosed bridge used to traverse this central area to allow access to the Hut from the East side of the building.
"The old way of getting to the Hutzler Reading Room was to come in through the Keyser Quad doors. You'd hit the entry vestibule then you'd come through memorial hall," Kajic said gesturing to a hole on the East section of the building, across the atrium floor.
"Do you see where the brick is missing? That's the outline of the old bridge. There was a bridge that connected you from that side to get through. A lot of people didn't think of it as a bridge, because they just walked through and thought it was a corridor. We took that away and build the structure up so you have [from the bottom up] the basement, the lecture hall, the museum, and the atrium."
Inside the building from the atrium, there will be a café. "You can go out there [to the atrium] and sit with your coffee and study and chit chat."
Some windows facing the old courtyard were bricked in during the 1960s.
"We're reopening these windows back up for a better living community as part of the LEED inventive. We want to shed a lot of light into this space that will cast not only into the offices, but into the interior corridors as well."
Like the Donovan Room, the Hut is undergoing restoration. All of the windows in the Hut were restored and conserved at a local firm.
"They were recently put back in a week or two ago," Kajic said.
The ceiling of the Hut was completely ripped down and installed with utilities and fire protection, but was redone in the historical style. "We went back with plaster cast molding and plaster ceilings and walls," Kajic said.
"We wanted to make some multipurpose spaces," he added. A minimalist glass wall will separate the south wing of the Hut from the main area of the room. The soundproof wall will allow group study to take place without disturbing the main quiet area.
