CHLOE KOWALYK
Managing Editor
Construction has become a common sight on SUNY Fredonia’s campus. However, Houghton Hall, an academic building on campus, is complete.
Photograph by Derek Raymond.
Located between the Science Center and Fenton Hall, Houghton Hall houses the computer and information sciences, geosciences and physics departments.
According to Markus Kessler, the director of facilities planning, Houghton Hall is the result of a 21-year-long process. The college initially had the idea for the building in 2001, and the renovations were completed in 2022.
Kessler also noted that the Houghton Hall project was four phases. In phase one, the building was skinned, the interior was demolished and new masonry and windows were added.
With the demolition, the space where Houghton Hall was looked empty. “The joke was it was a parking garage,” Kessler said.
In phase two, the building was refitted for the three departments above that would move into the building.
Phase three focused mainly on the basement, which now houses an animal colony for labs. In phase four, the project focused on creating an appropriate space for the mathematics department, including a new fishbowl.
However, Kessler noted that phase four of the project almost didn’t happen.
“We were just going to have a shelf space on the second floor, but Facilities Planning really pushed to finish the building,” he said. “So by doing that, we were also providing a space for mathematics.”
Despite the time taken to complete the project and the numerous phases it went through, Kessler said, “the overall schedule of the project, believe it or not, was on schedule.”
He further explained that the project was intended to be finished before students moved back for the fall semester, but it ended up being a little later than expected due to the addition to the math department and furnishings needed for it. “[It was] a little bit of a crunch, but we got it to work,” Kessler said.
The Houghton Hall project cost around $36 million. However, it is important to note that the funding for construction and the school’s budget are separate.
Budgets for construction are funded through the State University Construction Fund (SUCF), which does ont impact SUNY Fredonia’s budget.
Regarding Houghton Hall, Kessler said the project “unfortunately could not could not be built under one contract, the way that the funding was being allocated by the state.” This was part of the reasoning behind the project being broken out into phases.
Kessler also said one of the goals of the project was to “[put] science on display.”
In fact, many science professors were happy to see the change. Dr. Thomas Hegna, an assistant professor in geosciences, shared this feeling. “I think we are all very happy with the space,” he said. “We are very happy with the teaching setup, the lab setup [and] the offices. It’s great to have our own space now, both for us and for our students.”
Prior to moving into Houghton Hall, geosciences was held in Jewett Hall, another academic building on campus. Hegna detailed how he had to complete research with his students in his office, rather than in a lab setting or larger space. “We had essentially no research space,” Hegna said.
Once faculty were permitted to move back into Houghton, Hegna said he did so right away. “I [moved] mid-semester, which as you might imagine, is kind of a difficult thing to find time to do while you’re teaching and everything. But it’s so much better,” he said.
Prior to the renovations and updates, Kessler described the building as looking like a “dungeon.”
“It was just basically corridors with masonry brick walls,” Kessler said. Everything was closed off, and nothing more than nameplates distinguished the rooms.
Hegna has been here at SUNY Fredonia for four years, and hasn’t seen the previous Houghton Hall. He also said that none of the geosciences tenure-track faculty have ever seen the old building.
Because of this, Hegna said the faculty “mostly did not participate in the designing discussions.” He added, “when we did, it was at a relatively late stage.”
Despite this, Hegna said, “the teaching spaces are just so much better.”
The classrooms for geology and environmental science were purposely designed to be integrated lab and lecture classrooms. The rooms could be used for both labs and class lectures.
With these new spaces, Hegna said professors “can move seamlessly between [their] specimen work and lecture work.” He added, “In fact, I’m still working on ways to exploit this opportunity, because it’s such a powerful way to do active learning.”
Hegna explained that geology is a specimen-based field, and the department needs a lot of storage space to keep rocks, minerals and fossils. The whiteboards in Houghton Hall are sliding, and have storage space in them.
Additionally, there is a rock storage room in Houghton Hall. “[It] has tons of space to grow,” Hegna said.
The newly-renovated Houghton Hall was just one of the many projects Facilities Planning is working on.
Kessler said Facilities Planning is currently working on renovating Jewett Hall to house student services such as the Registrar’s Office and English as a Second Language (ESL). Kessler explained that this will serve as a “one-stop shop” to help students find many of the resources they need in the same place.
In addition to the upcoming work on Jewett Hall, Reed Library is also getting some updates. Facilities Planning is going to redo the interior of the library. Also, the windows outside of the building are being redone.
Old Mason Hall and part of the Mason Hall annex will also receive some renovations soon.
Finally, the Kirkland Complex plaza, near the closed Erie Dining Hall, is getting reworked. Native landscaping and greenery will be put in to match the changing of the seasons. While Erie Dining Hall is not yet being worked on, Kessler said this may be something Facilities Planning is open to in the future.