About six months after changes to Faunce House were first proposed, a representative from the Undergraduate Council of Students and a University official say renovations are still in the planning stages.
Last spring, UCS and the Office of Student Life suggested changing Faunce by reorganizing the layout of the first floor and adding more lounge areas. Though progress has been made on some renovations that were proposed around the same time as the Faunce renovations- such as improvements to the Sharpe Refectory and the creation of the Freidman Study Center in the Sciences Library - there has been little progress on plans for Faunce, said Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Russell Carey '91 MA'06 and Brian Becker '09, chair of UCS' campus life committee.
In the meantime, UCS, the OSL and the Student Activities Advisory Board, a group of students and staff that advises the Student Activities Office, are meeting and exchanging ideas with Steven Cassell of Architecture Research Office in New York City, the architect who designed the Friedman Study Center, to determine what the eventual changes will be. The project is open to input from students, Becker said. "Nothing is set in stone," he added.
One change to Faunce has already occurred: Michael Anthony's Hair Salon, the barbershop that had been in the basement of Faunce for 15 years, has been vacated. The SAO decided last year not to renew the lease for the barbershop.
"In my view ... the barber was underused by students. ... The space was more valuable to students (used in other ways)," Becker said.
The room currently serves as a temporary meeting place for UCS but will be considered for other uses as potential changes develop, he said.
Though Faunce's future is unclear, planners have some ideas for its general improvement. Carey said the OSL's main focus is to "look at the building and make the best use for students as well as we can." He added that one of the major goals for campus improvements is to increase the number of social and study areas and that Faunce would be a suitable space for realizing this goal.
Becker agreed, saying, "One of the main focuses we're keeping in mind is ... to increase student space in the building. It's cut up. ... It's not accessible to all students right now."
He also said an expansion to the Blue Room is being considered. "We're planning to include new eating spaces," Becker said, but he could not elaborate on what that might entail.
According to the Department of Facilities Management Approved Projects Status Report, the estimated time of completion for the Faunce changes is Fall 2007. But both the specific timeline and the cost of renovations are unclear, Becker and Carey said. Nonetheless, planners have high hopes for the building.
"(The purpose of the renovation is) to make it more the campus center that Brown deserves," Becker said. "At first it was going to be a small change, but soon we realized that it was on a much larger scale."
