Over the summer, Residential Living worked on a variety of construction proj­ects including redo­ing the South Debot circle, Stormwater Management, and the renovation of Burroughs Hall, proj­ects that made resi­dential buildings more environmentally friendly.

The renovation of Burroughs Hall was just one step in a project of renovating all the Residential Halls in the north and south Debot quads.

“The renovated halls are important to students because it shows them that we want them to enjoy their college experience,” said Burroughs Hall director, Ben Wilkes. “We are trying to stay current with as many trends as we can and giving the students the best renovation keeps us on the leading edge of student services.”

Burroughs Hall not only has a new entrance, but also received new fire sprinklers, elevator, lighting, and carpet. Residential Living put solar panels on Burroughs Hall to preheat domestic hot water as well. 

“The biggest thing that we did [with renovations] was that we will be LEED silver certified,” said Assistant Director for Building Services at Residential Living, Michael Zsido.

LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a rating scale of how environmentally friendly a building is.

Burroughs Hall, as well as other renovated halls has recycled content in their carpeting, low volatile organic compounds in the paint, and windows are low E grade glass. Neale Hall and the Suites@201 are the only other residential halls that are currently LEED silver certified.

“Students at UWSP have asked us to be as sustainable as possible… we have a number of green initiatives in residential living,” Zsido said.

The other two construction projects that took place over the summer also have environmental ties. Redoing the south Debot circle was one such project.

“We kept tearing the circle up,” Zsido said due to the fact that they needed to do a lot of underground piping work for each renovation. “It has been completely redone. It ended up really nice.”

During the summer, a number of sidewalks and landscaping was torn up for a Stormwater Management project. Residential Living had to get land at the right elevation and drainage for stormwater management. Parking lot P also received a facelift to handle storm water more efficiently.

Another new addition to the residential halls is that an emergency generator was installed in Thompson Hall so in the case of a power outage, the residential halls will have emergency power and lighting in the corridors, stairwells, and the fire alarms will still be functional.

“UWSP housing continues to offer the best accommodations for UWSP students and by continually renovating and making the spaces we have better, the students want to stay in the halls for their junior and senior years,” Wilkes said.

Knutzen Hall is the next residential hall scheduled for renovated next summer, with Thompson and Watson to follow.

“From the students I’ve talked to, they’re really excited,” Zsido said.