D’Youville renovating new science building

By Peter Murphy and Bill Schutt 
Bengal News West Reporters 

            D’Youville College will begin demolition in mid-April as part of the school’s $20 million construction project on 606 Niagara St.in an effort to stay current and competitive.

            Renovation has already begun on the new 85,000 square foot Arts, Sciences, and Education building, which will replace the 40-year-old Dr. Pauline Alt building on the college campus, said  Ed Cogan, the associate vice president for operations for D’Youville.

            Financing for the project is not complete, but the D’Youville College Institutional Advancement Group is working with local foundations involved with sciences for funding of the project. Donors will be given naming rights to building.

        

Former Letchworth Mansion

    The building at 606 Niagara St. is centered by the historic Letchworth family mansion, which most recently housed Gateway-Longview, a child and family service organization.

            The 60,000 square foot building currently has three sections, built in 1922, 1928, and 1952. According to Cogan, the college will retain the façade of the 1922 section and gut or demolish everything else. He said originally, the college wanted to keep the entire building, but the layout would not accommodate the space needed.

            Uniland Development, of Amherst is the general contractor.

             “The main crux of it is that the college knew it needed to stay current with the new sciences because a lot of things have changed with labs in the last 40 years,” Cogan said.

     

Dr. Pauline Alt Building

       One other reason D’Youville wanted to create more new science labs was because the current site of the labs, the Alt Building, contains asbestos. The building was built in the late 1960s and has not been upgraded to match the changing technologies.

            The college’s best option is to move the labs to the new building then focus on renovating and removing the asbestos from the Alt Building, Cogan said.

            The new building will include a 50-car parking lot, but parking still remains a concern for some students, including Jennifer Woelfel, a biology major, who said the majority of her classes will be in the new building.  

            “One of the only concerns I have is for parking, whether or not they will be able to provide adequate spots for all the people using this new building,” Woelfel said.

            The student also had safety concerns despite the proximity of the building to the rest of the campus. She did acknowledge, however, the type of impact this could have on Niagara Street.

            “Hopefully it helps turn Niagara into a better area,” she said.

            D’Youville hopes to gain a competitive edge with the new building. SUNY Buffalo State and Canisius College have upgraded their art and science buildings.

 

Renovations underway at back of 606 Niagara St.

           “We are building a new art, science, and education building to stay competitive with local colleges and it’s something we wanted to do,” said Cogan.

            Cogan said that D’Youville let the surrounding neighborhood know about the renovation plans during a community meeting.

            “Over 100 people showed up, and were thrilled that the college was going to make a new building for local use instead of just tearing down another building,” said Cogan.

            The college also purchased five years ago the lot on the corner of Fourth Street and Porter Avenue where the original Ted’s Hot Dog restaurant was located. The college plans to add a soccer field to the list of renovations coming to D’Youville.