Students and staff will see Naugle Hall in a different light as they walk past the site this semester. Naugle Hall has hosted many students and even officials such as SU Chairman of Council of Trustees, Michael Schaul, who jokingly voted against the demolition last academic year.
Where the traditional residence hall once stood, now lays rubble of broken desks, chairs and concrete. Standing on Adams Drive and staring up at what once was the exterior brick wall, one can see the doorways to the communal bathrooms that students will no longer have to share. Once Naugle Hall is gone, there will only be one traditional residence hall that will be occupied this academic year, McLean.
The demolition of Naugle Hall began the week of July 23, and according to Terry Starr, associate director of planning design and construction, its estimated completion is by the end of September and will be restored to a grass space by early October.
According to Starr, the project is similar to other demolitions in the past, except for a new contractor, Eartmovers Unlimited Inc. from Kylertown, Pennsylvania. Earthmovers Unlimited Inc. will be sorting out metals and sending them to recyclers.
“The excavating contractor has started clearing the walls, interior walls and what you would see as brick on the outside of the building. The contractor is removing that material and what that leaves is the frame structure,” Starr said.
Starting one wing at a time, Earthmovers Unlimited began with the wing next to Adams Drive and will move toward the wing facing Reisner. The process includes tearing the building down but also crushing the concrete from the building. The concrete will then be stockpiled at the university storage facility to be used as road base for a separate project, the Loop Road project.
“We are removing a building from campus that no longer meets our needs and it removes it from our inventory so we don’t have to maintain it,” Starr said.
Although the space is returning to grass, according to Starr, the facilities masterplan does preserve the space for a building at some point but it is a long-term plan.
The original Naugle Hall may no longer be standing soon, but the name will remain on campus. The residence hall known as McLean II since 2012 has been renamed Naugle Hall.
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