Extreme Makeover: Residence Hall Edition.
Although Ty Pennington (of ABC television fame) wasn’t parading around the UO campus shouting encouragement through his infamous megaphone, the Earl residence halls have received a significant upgrade after a lengthy renovation that lasted more than a year.
The project totaled around $6 million.
A wide variety of renovations are now in place at what is one of the UO’s smaller residence halls, including 53 new gender-inclusive bathrooms that feature a private toilet, vanity and shower. The changes reflect the growing need to ensure the privacy and comfort of all incoming students, specifically those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
Most rooms in Earl are still standard two-person, same-sex rooms, but the halls have now progressed to mixed-gender floors. This integration fosters a greater sense of a respectful community, according to Gus Lim, the UO’s director of housing facility services.
“Mixed-gender floors improve conduct,” Lim said. “People are more civil and more engaging with each other; it’s a brand-new environment.”
However, the new layout of the Earl dormitories doesn’t just establish a new social environment. Plenty of upgrades have been made to the 168 bedrooms in the residence hall as well, including all 10 pieces of furniture in each room. Those 1,680 individual pieces of furniture were hand-carried up the stairways.
Additionally, rooms in the Sheldon, Stafford and Young wings are now hypoallergenic after floor coverings throughout the halls ― 65,000 square feet ― were replaced. The walls and ceilings in each wing were also refinished with a fresh coat of paint and treated for potential asbestos.
But wait, there’s more.
All five of the complex’s lounges were given a facelift as well as new flooring, furniture and lighting. The furniture is comfortable and modern and is meant to encourage students to use the lounge as a commons for studying and socializing. Also, the Earl wing of the complex will now house business-related majors as a residential business community, if students choose to be a part of it.
Outside the dorms, the main electrical service was replaced and new electronic locks were added for increased external security.
The makeover is indeed extreme, but if neighboring Straub Hall hadn’t also been undergoing a complete renovation during the last year the Earl complex wouldn’t have been able to make so many changes. With students unable to live in Earl during the 2013-14 academic year, the UO housing department jumped at the opportunity to finally bring the dorm into the 21st century.
“We really made lemonade out of lemons,” Lim said.
—By Nathaniel Brown, Public Affairs Communications intern