The HT Project

Feb 2020, bes

Haldeman-Thiessen (HT) Science Building has been an integral part of the Monmouth College campus for 46 years. Opening in 1974 the building housed the physical science departments of Physics, Math and Computer Science, Psychology, Chemistry and Biology. The basement was also the home of a small theater. In addition to the academic departments, the physical plant currently operates boilers (for heat) in the basement and the evaporators (for cooling) on the roof that remotely provided hot and cold water to heat and cool numerous campus buildings. Even today, the CSB air conditioning (cooling) comes from the roof of HT. In the fall of 2013, all these academic departments moved into the newly constructed Center for Science and Business (CSB).

The luxury of being able to transition from one building to another building was quite nice allowing the new residents of CSB be transition over slowly during the summer/fall of 2013. Frequent return trips over the subsequent years allowed department to gathered needed equipment and supplies. Needless to say, not all items in HT were needed in CSB. The physical space became essentially abandoned.

As is the case for "abandon" properties, numerous failures resulted. Water leaks were found days after they started, vandals broke in and caused damage on multiple occasions, leftover chemicals were improperly handed, and general disarray resulted.

If HT were not the home to the heating and cooling facilities, this building would be slated for demolition. The physical structure is strong, but the heating and AC (where existent) were built at a time that did not full respect the conservation practices of the day. Repairs to the HVAC system were nearly impossible due to the building design. Any renovation to the building would require a complete internal demolition.

It is time to prepare for the future.

Initiatives

Clean out the building

- remove all non-permanent items

- Physics

- Math and Comp Sci

- Chemistry

- Biology

- remove/sell furnishings

Begin using the building

- Maker space - Engineering projects - Gaming room - MC Call center (done)