Renovation of Buchanan Hall is being delayed because project costs were higher than originally estimated, said Darryl Knight, associate director of the Department of Residence.

Knight said Buchanan Hall was slated to open in fall 2003 as a housing option for graduate students, but the date has been pushed back to fall 2004.

He said cost estimates given by The Durrant Group, the architecture firm working on the project, were higher than anticipated.

“Sometimes in construction it turns out like that,” he said. “One of the things about renovating as opposed to building a new structure is that a lot of things you can just build into a new building, you have to add to an existing structure.”

Knight said this can cause the price of renovation to rise.

Virginia Arthur, associate director for the department of residence, said the delay should not cause housing shortages for students as long as residence hall occupancy doesn’t rise significantly in the fall.

She said students who had planned to live in Buchanan Hall should “continue to make plans to stay where they are or make new plans.”

Kate Bruns, communication specialist for the DOR, said graduate students have several current housing options.

“Graduate students can live in any upper-division house,” she said.

Wallace-Wilson, Frederiksen Court, and University Village have all been popular options for graduate students, she said.

Knight said if the Department of Residence did not receive enough graduate student applicants, underclassmen could be allowed to live in Buchanan.

“We wouldn’t know that until we were well into our building cycle and we were in the process of taking applications for the building,” he said.

Arthur also said that under certain conditions undergraduate students would be allowed to live in Buchanan Hall.

“If we can’t fill it with older students, we’ll fill it with students who want to live there, regardless of their age,” she said.

Knight said Buchanan was scheduled to be open as a suite-style building, with one bathroom for every one or two rooms. He said there are no other plans to build housing for graduate students.

“We have not done anything in the past,” he said, “and I think this is going to be it for the [buildings for] graduate students.”

Bruns said Buchanan Hall has a long history of housing graduate students. It was originally built to fill a need for housing for graduate and international students and was opened as Buchanan Hall on June 22, 1962, she said.

Bruns said current building capacity is 409 students, although that could change depending how the DOR proceeds with the building project.

Knight said the finished building would have a more relaxed environment than traditional residence halls.

“[Graduate students] are a little bit older; they have a little different needs than the underclassmen and even the upperclassmen do,” he said.

The finished Buchanan Hall will be worth the wait, he said.

“It will be a very good project when it’s finished,” Knight said.