Making Beardshear Hall more accessible to students is one goal of its two-year, $5.7 million renovation. The renovations, which will be finished by November 2002, also will bring the 94-year-old building up to safety standards and will remodel several offices. The project currently is in its first of three phases. The first phase focuses on the ground floor, which is geared toward students. “We’re really trying to get the ground level more student-service oriented,” said Steve Prater, project manager. The offices that tend to provide the most services for students will be relocated to the ground floor. These offices include financial aid, registrar, the ISUCard office, career planning and receivables. Extra desks will be placed around the stairwells where the janitor closets currently are located. Prater said these desks can be used at the beginning of the year for student financial aid to minimize students’ waiting time. Also, a permanent student help desk will be installed in the center of the ground floor. Prater said the trial help desk has been a valuable resource. “It has proved to be useful for students, visitors and potential students. We’re really going to play off that and increase services,” he said. The help desk also will have computers for students to use. Prater said the ground-floor renovations are aimed at making the area brighter and friendlier. “Right now it’s kind of like a dungeon. It’s dark and foreboding in a lot of ways,” Prater said. To make the space more welcoming, brighter light fixtures will be installed and the frosted-glass doors will be replaced with clear ones to let people see inside. One of the most difficult aspects of the construction is having workers in Beardshear, Prater said. For phase one, the ground-floor offices were moved to other buildings, including Pearson Hall and Student Services Building. “When people are still occupying space in the building, you do things a little differently,” Prater said. “There will be some disruption, but most of the [relocated] offices have been reestablished. We’re trying to let people know where they are and how to get there.” The next two phases will remodel and reshuffle offices on the second and third floors. Many administrative positions will be moved to the second floors. These offices include the vice president for Student Affairs, the vice provost for Undergraduate Studies, governmental relations, vice president for External Affairs, marketing, vice provost for Research and Advanced Studies and the vice provost for Extension. Offices on the third floor will be institutional research, internal audit, university legal services, affirmative action and human resources. Prater said the placement of the offices was partially determined by the number of people who visit the office. “It’s based on the level of usage it gets. The offices on the third floor are ones that don’t get that much traffic,” he said. Vice President for Student Affairs Thomas Hill is one of the administrators who will be making a move from the third floor to the second floor. He said the changes will be beneficial. “The walk doesn’t bother me, but if it makes it accessible to others, it makes it better,” Hill said. Hill is still working in his office during the ground-floor construction, and he said the noise isn’t distracting. “It’s fine. Occasionally you hear the jack hammer when they’re removing concrete,” he said. Other work on the building will increase safety standards and make it handicapped-accessible. Harold Pike Construction of Ames currently is making the north and east ground-floor entrances handicapped-accessible. The elevators also will be replaced. A new smoke evacuation system is being installed to meet life-safety issues. Prater said smoke tends to collect in atrium spaces, a place where people need to pass through to exit in emergencies. The new system will open all the doors to bring in new air and force the smoke up and out of the atrium. To make the building safer, the east entry stairs will be replaced and handrails will be added, Prater said.