Renovations taking place in Bayou Building to continue through 2019-2020
The Bayou Building, built in 1974, is currently undergoing minor renovations for routine maintenance and efforts to enhance the building’s physical appearance. Some of the renovations that have already been completed are new flooring for the Garden Room and Forest Room, removing bulletin space, and painting the student entrance hallway.
Mark Denney, vice president in administration and finances, said the motives behind the latest renovations are the recognition that the Bayou Building is the university’s primary academic and administrative center.
“In order to preserve the space, routine maintenance and upkeep must be performed,” Denney said. “The Bayou Building is often the initial encounter space between the campus its students and visitors, therefore the obvious reasoning to these changes.”
Denney said the renovations were already scheduled, although the exact timing was expedited because of Feb. 28 University of Houston System Board of Regents meeting being held on campus.
“It is critical to recognize that none of the work performed was done specifically because of the meeting,” Denney said. “It is work that has already been budgeted for and should have been done in previous periods.”
Other renovations scheduled in the Bayou Building for 2019 include mechanical work on the elevators, which is scheduled to be completed over spring break week. The Patio Cafe may undergo minor renovations in preparation for the new residence hall, which is scheduled to open this fall. Major renovations to the Patio Cafe have been postponed until 2020. It is also expected to see overall renovations throughout the classrooms.
Denney said many of the upcoming projects that are scheduled to be done during 2019 have undergone planning for a long period of time. Additionally, the projects had not been done in previous years because of a variety of reasons, primarily cost savings measures that were, at times, short-sighted in the approach to the long-term sustainability of the Bayou Building and were not recognizing the importance of the Bayou Building and the role it plays in serving the UHCL campus.
Denney said the renovations should not be any inconvenience to the students as the majority of the projects are worked around school holidays and points out these renovations have gone through a process of approval and project execution plans through the Facilities and Maintenance Department.
“No direct impact the tuition or fees that students pay will occur due to these decisions, in fact, the objective is to keep UHCL as an affordable institution and a significant part of achieving that is the intelligent planning of the maintenance of our facilities,” Denney said. “We are working diligently on creating systems that enhance the transparency of the university and enable students to be informed without overloading with communications that will not be useful.”
If there are any concerns that a student, staff or faculty member has, the Student Government Association (SGA) highly encourages them to inform any of the SGA Senators directly. The SGA holds meetings weekly on Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m in the SSCB Lecture Hall. They have a designated time slot for an open forum, a time in which any student can bring up any concern or question. All UHCL students are welcomed to attend these meetings.
Derek Delgado, computer science major who is an active member in the SGA, approves the direction in which the campus renovations are headed. Delgado said it is refreshing to see UHCL take these steps to improve the overall life on campus.
“I think these renovations are great,” Delgado said. “It is going to allow for our campus to look more visually pleasing and allow our students to really enjoy the learning environment around them.”
