Jewell Hall, Fix or Nix?

Jewell Hall has been on the edge of demolition for years. Around since 1938, it has undergone one renovation and several minor alterations in order to keep it functional enough for students to live in. As Hannah mentioned in her blog, there are several positive social aspects of Jewell Hall that have created a history for the past residents. However, as Rachel said in her blog, there are many health risks that are associated with Jewell Hall and its deteriorating interior. Jewell Hall is characterized by its small community charm, structural defects and potential health risks from construction flaws. All of the residence halls have evidence of decay but Jewell Hall by far has the most predominant and obvious characteristics outlining its deterioration. Freshmen who have lived in Jewell Hall are touched by its close knit community effect and often hope to live there again sophomore year but students who have not had the experience living in this old dorm are glad they were not assigned to such a bad hall. Many students argue that the condition of the halls is not just an issue of cost, but an issue of monetary distribution and the school has been focusing its funds elsewhere. That is, until now. Rather than demolishing Jewell Hall and building a new dorm, should the university invest in what dorms they have to fix them and build new dorms elsewhere?

Construction on New North Hall began as Jewell Hall remained untouched. Photo credit: Campaigner.

As enrollment continues to increase for the University of Kentucky, the need for living space grows. The school cannot house all of its applicants as it is. For example, there was a substantial increase from 7,603 students accepted in 2004 to a hefty 8,172 students accepted in 2008 (University of Kentucky Office of Finance 1). Why such a jump? Well, during August 2005, the new dorms named Ingles, Baldwin and Smith were completed on South Campus and in the past few years New North Hall has opened allowing a larger number of freshman applicants to be accepted between 2004 and 2008 (Blanton 1). There has not been another steep rise in acceptance because since 2005, because no more new dorms have been added. Even though no new dorms have been added, the freshman admission has continued to increase its class size or number of accepted students by about three percent a year. The question is where are all these students living?

Jewell Hall houses only 108 people but in 2008, these few beds earned their keep (University of Kentucky Campus Housing 1). During this year of the class size spike, the University of Kentucky had accepted more students than it could handle and they “re-opened” Jewell Hall to accommodate the overflow of students. The University of Kentucky Campus Housing division had thought to close Jewell Hall a number of times over the past few years but every year had changed their mind. Ben Crutcher, UK’s Associate vice president for Auxiliary Services, also said in 2008 that the number of housing applications increased by about 200 applications for the 2009-2010 school year so the hall would be “reopening.” (Laster 1) This would occur even though housing officials had announced they would close Boyd and Jewell halls during the Spring 2008 semester because it housed the smallest number of residents and because the building was slowly falling into disrepair. This was a hassle though because after filling the building to it’s 108-person capacity in fall, they closed it over Winter Break and moved the residents to new available housing that had become vacant in Keeneland Hall, Blazer Hall, and Blanding Tower (Laster 3). This was too much of an inconvenience for everyone for Jewell Hall to close so instead, the hall would remain open for the entire 2009-2010 school year and not close mid-year (Lexington Herald-Leader 1). Again this year, Jewell Hall remains in the same disrepair as it has been in for the past years and it was scheduled to close. However, again the residence hall had to remain open to accommodate the overflow of freshmen despite what bad shape it was in.

One mother of a current junior of University of Kentucky reflects on the bad conditions Jewell Hall was in during the rough closing and re-opening times:

“When he entered his freshman year, he was placed in Jewell Hall… We were told there were more incoming freshman than usual, so they were going to use Jewell Hall… The accommodations were deplorable it smelled, it was not clean, (I was unable to even use the public restroom because it was so filthy, and that was on move-in day). Our son’s room also had stains and a hole in the carpet, (which we were expected to pay a fine for at the end of the year!) There also is no air conditioning and the furnace didn’t work right most of the time, but when it did it banged so loudly no one could sleep through it. My son had SIX fans running in his room, as well as the window open the entire school year just to try and maintain a normal temp. in the room. Unless that building gets a complete overhaul, I feel quite strongly that this is not what I would consider to be even adequate housing for our kids… Uk housing officials need to take a look at some other University campuses and see what is being offered in their dorms. It is stated in your article that housing officials themselves have said the building is falling into a state of disrepair. Truth be told, it’s the state of disrepair and cockroaches that closed the building down last year. (Yes, my son saw them his freshman year.) How dare they assume my daughter or any student should live in this building? Maybe someone should consider spending a little more time and money on upgrading our housing facilities, and a little less on the sports programs.”

You can read more about Jewell Halls 2009-2010 re-opening here.

Fortunately since then, Jewell Hall has received air conditioning. Jewell Hall has not undergone any recent renovations but small investments have been made. The University of Kentucky has continually funded small projects in the dorm such as the new air conditioning units in each dorm room and a new front desk for the lobby in the summer of 2010 but no substantial improvements have been made in order to help reverse the decline of the hall’s condition. Unfortunately the air conditioner installments were not completed either and their placement was not very well planned.

Above shows areas where air conditioning units were installed (circled) and where they were planned but not installed (X’s). Photo credit: University of Kentucky Campus Housing.

Air conditioners were not installed in neither the downstairs lobby area nor in the recreation room as originally planned as shown in the picture to the right.

As you can see in the picture below, the air conditioners are not doing a very good job of regulating the room temperature anyway and students still litter their rooms with numerous fans in hopes to stop the heat.

Current Jewell Hall Residents Trevor and Jared installed their own form of air conditioning in their room.Photo credit: Trevor W.

Repairs have been made in order to fix immediate issues to prolong Jewell Hall’s life because more housing is desperately needed. Another example would be the cracks in the walls and ceilings. The cracks have been spackled but have yet to be repainted. You can see some of these cracks in Rachel’s Blog. However, even these small repairs are crumbling with age and beyond re-patching. Also, the floorboards of the third floor are warped which causes those unfamiliar with the walk to stumble. The floor would not just need a few boards replaced but instead would require the entire length of the hall to be replaced. Finally, the elevator of the building has its original fittings and buttons inside lain in brass with a lock inside labeled specifically for the elevator attendant. Elevator attendants date back to before the 1950s (Blackford 1). This really shows the halls age! The elevator itself also gets stuck in between floors on average every six rides and the doors do not fully shut before the elevator begins to move. An overall renovation has been denied or overlooked but the University because Jewell Hall has been on the brink of demolition for so long. The University has been indecisive when deciding whether or not it would be more expensive to keep investing their funds in Jewell Hall or to demolish it and build a new dorm until now. Any repairs have been reluctantly funded due to the potential future plans to demolish the building in entirety.

The current condition of University of Kentucky housing is not very good. New housing is much needed for the growing class sizes. The University of Kentucky currently has twenty-two undergraduate residence halls that house 5,145 students and 861 apartments which house graduate students and families. The average age of the residence halls is 44 years old and the deferred maintenance on the facilities exceeds $205 million. The current housing facilities have a Facilities Condition Index of over 85% (ratio of maintenance vs. replacement value) (University of Kentucky Campus Housing 2). This means that it would be more affordable to replace the buildings rather than repair them.

This is the current room configuration for Jewell Hall’s 3rd Floor. Photo credit: University of Kentucky Office of Undergraduate Housing.

The current room configurations of the older halls have been referred to as obsolete and they do not meet the programming requirements for today’s administrators and students. Over 80% of the rooms are of a “traditional” configuration (University of Kentucky Campus Housing 2). The “traditional” configuration consists of a small double occupied room on each side of a narrow hallway with a common bath and showers one end of the hall. The University would like to see more suite style living spaces such as those in Smith, Baldwin, and Ingels Hall.

So why does the University of Kentucky need to worry about the housing now? Well, admission has been growing at a steady rate of about 3% every year. This next year of 2012 would have about 120 more students in the freshman class. The excess of new students would be enough to overfill Jewell Hall alone! Well we know the University needs new housing and the housing it currently has needs repair so what is are they doing about it? Eli Capilouto said “The process of renewing, rebuilding and revitalizing our campus cannot wait. It is time to act. And that is what we intend to do.” (Lexington Herald-Leader 1). This shows that he does recognize the problem our school is facing and they have comprised a plan. Fortunately, as Chuck Ham states, “The University’s objective is to improve the student’s residential experience at the lowest cost to the student in the shortest turn-around time.” (Ham 1). This means that the plan is hopefully going to have a quick, positive, and inexpensive impact on the students. In order to have a quick and inexpensive turnaround, the Office of Finance has had to seek private funding.

Haggin Field pictured above behind Haggin Hall would be the new site of dorm construction.Photo credit: Alister MacKenzie.

The University of Kentucky’s plan has two main phases and one small third phase. Phase one is referred to as the HagginField project. This project is a plan to build a high-tech, $30 million residence hall with 600 beds for honors students that would open as soon as 2013 (Blackford 1); before graduation of the current freshman class! This new facility would be built on the sports field next to Haggin Hall. Many students are against this because they fear that the new hall would replace Haggin Field and they would miss playing Ultimate Frisbee, flag football, and other games in this space. However this is not necessarily the case according to phase two of the Universities plan.

Phase two of the University’s plan would create new beds for incoming students.Photo credit: Capacity and Design Studies Group.

Enter phase two. Phase two is a momentum domino effect that would eventually affect all of the residence halls. This phase’s main goal is to build facilities to accommodate 9,000 students (Capacity and Design Studies Group 3). These facilities will be constructed over the next few years on existing university land. Future building sites are projected to include projects on North Campus to replace Blazer, Boyd, Jewell and Holmes Hall. Projects on South Campus would include replacement of the Kirwan and Blanding complex (Student Housing Developer 3). Within the next nine years, many of these halls will no longer be operating meaning that the hall you are living in could possibly be out of business!

The third phase of the plan is a smaller and slower moving project. The third phase is to consolidate Graduate and Family housing on south campus near Commonwealth Stadium and the Arboretum (Student Housing Developer 7). This phase however has not been fully outlined and more planning is to be made once the first and second phases are set in motion.

A clipping from the Request for Proposal outlining the phases of the future development.Photo credit: Student Housing Developer.

The process of planning University of Kentucky’s campus housing future began in October 2011. University first issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) document to potential developers. The project specifications were included in the RFP and developers are working on submitting proposals that were planned to be finished in November. Construction of the first new dorm is to begin in the spring 2012. The University of Kentucky aims to open the first development in August 2013 (Student Housing Developer 1). Overall, the full project will take five to seven years.

Current students living in the dorms would not be living in the planned accommodations to see the new features and specifications but currently have to deal with the deterioration of the dorms the University of Kentucky has. These students are frustrated with the University, as am I, regarding the current living conditions. I would like to see funds redistributed so that the current living conditions for the students may be improved. Although the University has plans to build and destroy, there are still ties to the historical buildings on campus. Jewell, being one of the oldest, holds much history. As Hannah mentioned, alumni that revisit their old home are touched that Jewell has not changed much and it brings back many memories. Jewell could be renovated like Keeneland Hall was and become a historical building without hurting the functionality of the University as a whole. I think that the University should not allow the plans to demolish hall deter them from funding their repairs now either. Funds should not be withheld because they plan to rebuild anyway because the University of Kentucky needs to realize that they need to address the current situation as well as the future.

Works Cited

Appleby, Latara. 2011 UK Fusion. Digital image. UK Fusion. Kentucky Kernel, 22 Aug. 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://kykernel.photoshelter.com/img/pixel.gif&gt;.

Blackford, Linda B. “UK Plans $30 Million Dorm.” Kentucky Education. Kentucky.com Partners, 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <http://www.kentucky.com/2011/10/25/1934608/university-of-kentucky-will-build.html&gt;.

Blanton, Jay. “Capilouto Identifies Priorities, Framework for Enhancing Undergraduate Education.” Campus News. UKNow, 25 Oct. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <http://uknow.uky.edu/content/capilouto-identifies-priorities-framework-enhancing-undergraduate-education&gt;.

Campaigner. Jewell Hall. Digital image. Google Earth. Panoramio, 30 May 2007. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/2472180.jpg&gt;.

Capacity and Design Studies Group. Enhancing Undergraduate Experience without Towers. Lexington: University of Kentucky Purchasing Division, 10 Nov. 2011. PDF.

Ham, Chuck. “Frequently Asked Questions About the Housing Development Plan.” Housing Development Plan. University of Kentucky, 2 Dec. 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://www.uky.edu/President/campus_framework.html&gt;.

Laster, Jill. “Jewell Hall to Reopen for 2009-10 School Year.” Kentucky Kernel. 5 Apr. 2009. Web. <http://kykernel.com/2009/04/05/jewell-hall-to-reopen-for-2009-10-school-year/&gt;.

Lexington Herald-Leader. “University of Kentucky Plans New Residence Hall – $30 Million Facility Would House Honor Students.” American School & University. The Lexington Herald-Leader, 25 Oct. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <http://asumag.com/dailynews/university-kentucky-lexington-build-honors-student-residence-hall-20111025/&gt;.

MacKenzie, Alister. Build Site. Digital image. Kentucky Education. University of Kentucky, 3 Nov. 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2011.

Student Housing Developer. Request for Proposal UK‐1122‐12. Lexington: University of Kentucky Purchasing Division, 22 Nov. 2011. PDF.

University of Kentucky Campus Housing. Campus Map. Lexington: University of Kentucky, 29 July 2010. PDF.

University of Kentucky Campus Housing. Kirwan-Blanding Dorm Complex. Digital image. Campus Housing – Kirwan-Blanding. University of Kentucky, May 2009. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://www.uky.edu/CampusGuide/images/kbcx.jpeg&gt;.

University of Kentucky Campus Housing. Room Layout. Digital image. UK Campus Housing. University of Kentucky, 6 Oct. 2011. Web. 6 Nov. 2011. <http://www.uky.edu/Housing/images/jewel_hall.jpg&gt;.

University of Kentucky. Jewell 2009. Digital image. UK Campus Guide. University of Kentucky, May 2009. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://www.ppd.uky.edu/facility-files/images/0007.jpg&gt;.

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University of Kentucky Office of Undergraduate Housing. 3rd Floor Layout. Digital image. Campus Housing – Jewell Hall. University of Kentucky, 6 Oct. 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://www.uky.edu/Housing/images/floor_plans/jewell_floor3.gif&gt;.

University of Kentucky Undergraduate Assignment Office. “Jewell Hall.” UK Campus Housing. University of Kentucky, 6 Oct. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <http://www.uky.edu/Housing/undergraduate/jewell.html&gt;.