$2.2 million renovation of Roselawn now complete, offering pleasant office, class and interaction spaces

After more than six months of intensive construction work and a $2.2 million investment, the Roselawn renovation project at Eastern Mennonite University is complete. The former residence hall now houses departmental offices and several more classrooms on the revamped second and third floor. Its first floor, remodeled in 2012, continues to house the Intensive English Program.

“We’ve been able to replace under-utilized space with well-utilized space, develop classrooms that would accommodate bigger classes, and create a better working environment for faculty,” said vice president for finance Daryl Bert.

In recent years, EMU’s growth called for more classrooms and consolidation of office space. Various academic departments occupied available space across campus, usually in former homes acquired by the university. The faculty who occupied these houses often felt disconnected from the greater community, according to Jack Rutt, who provides special projects support for the provost’s office. One goal of the renovation, then, was to consolidate scattered faculty and provide more opportunities for interdepartmental communication and collaboration.

That goal was first met on two consecutive Saturdays in September, when an interdisciplinary group of volunteers and faculty members began the move-in process.

The Bible and religion, history, and psychology departments were the first of the five academic departments to occupy Roselawn; language and literature and applied social sciences soon followed.

During the lunch break on that first move-in day, faculty and volunteers gathered in one of the new office spaces to share a meal. For Bible and religion instructor Carmen Schrock-Hurst, the value of the move was reflected in this small experience of breaking bread with faculty she had occasionally seen in past semesters.

“It is fun to have a sense of collegiality,” said Schrock-Hurst, whose office was previously located across campus in Blosser House. Being in Roselawn “helps me to feel part of the bigger picture.”

Although university planners considered several ideas for occupants of the new space (including moving the advancement division into Roselawn), they settled upon allocating the space to academic departments with a natural “synergy,” said Bert, the vice president who monitors construction and renovation projects.

Bert is also one of the supervisors of the much bigger Suter Science Center renovations across campus. Undergoing two major renovations at the same time was not ideal, Bert said, but neither was leaving Roselawn mostly unused for another couple of years. The project reached completion on a very tight schedule – almost entirely over the summer of 2014.

Built in 1969, Roselawn began as a women’s residence hall. Until the mid-1980s, it was considered one of the “nicer” dorms, said vice president Deirdre Smeltzer, who was a community assistant there from 1985 to 1986.

By 2011, when the dorm ceased to be used for residence life, it desperately needed renovation and was considered the most undesirable on-campus housing option, said Smeltzer.

In 2012, EMU revamped the first floor of Roselawn for occupancy by the rapidly growing Intensive English Program, which moved from its former cramped location in a small house near the seminary building.

EMU leadership, in tandem with contractors, paid special attention to energy and design principles that would make Roselawn as sustainable as possible, as has been done for all recent EMU buildings and renovations.

View more photos of the renovated Roselawn through this Flickr gallery