Only four days after students ate the final meal from its tables and student employees wiped it clean for the last time, construction crews on Tuesday prepared to wipe the half century old Gregory Drive dining hall off the campus map.
The fate of the dining hall has been set, as crews will begin its demolition on June 1, taking another step in the renovation of an area of the Ikenberry Commons currently occupied by the dormitories collectively known as the “six-pack,” said Facilities and Services spokesperson Judith Lateer.
It is one of many projects that is part of the renovation between Fourth and First streets and Peabody and Gregory drives that began in 2007 and will take place over the next few years.
While the dining halls are being demolished, all six of the existing dormitories will continue to house students for at least the next two school years, as Garner Hall is not scheduled to be demolished until the summer of 2012, Lateer said in an e-mail.
The sights and sounds of last week’s students have been replaced by this week’s construction workers, rumbling electrical generators and sirens warning people that construction vehicles are backing up.
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Crews will begin demolishing the Peabody Drive dining hall, the other half of the Ikenberry Common’s dining halls, on June 14, Lateer said.
Next year, Ikenberry Commons residents in Garner, Forbes, Hopkins, Scott, Snyder and Weston Halls will eat in the new Student Dining and Residential Programs Building which stretches two blocks along Gregory Drive from Arbor to Euclid Street.
According to the University Housing website, it will take about six weeks to complete the dining hall demolition project, which will cost over $1.7 million in awards to various contractors, according to minutes from a board of trustees meeting Jan. 21.
Around $1.4 million is scheduled to go to Robinette Demolition, Inc. of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.
Lateer said not all of the old material of the two dining halls will be thrown in the garbage.
Much of the loose material, such as the tables and chairs, will be donated to various Illinois state agencies, including the department of corrections.
