Freshmen Pleased With Canaday Hall

As carpenters and pipe insulators moved into the final stages of construction on Canaday Hall this week, its occupants seem satisfied with their accommodations.

Citing Canaday's single bedrooms, wall-to-wall carpeting, substantial soundproofing and North Yard location, residents reached near-unanimity yesterday in praising the complex. And while some complained of the building's "sterility" and "uniformity," most conceded these drawbacks were inevitable in a new dormitory.

"If you want to get picky, it doesn't have the charm of the older dorms," said Elizabeth Nicholson '78, who watched workers install a window sill in her room yesterday. "But everyone likes it," she added.

Canaday's single most attractive aspect seems to be its bedrooms, which are all single. Most Canaday freshmen share four-room triples or five-room quadruples. There are also more than 20 singles. If the need arises, 26 of the quads can be broken up into singles and triples.

Canaday's contractors, who faced a mid-September deadline, took barely 14 months to construct the complex. Harold L. Goyette, director of the University Planning Office, said yesterday that Canaday was built on a "fast track system."

This means workers began construction before architects had completed their designs. "The roof went on before we got the plans for it," Robert Landry, head carpenter for the Barkan Construction Co., which handled the contract, said yesterday.

Landry said Canaday's architecture relies heavily on 26-foot slabs of prefabricated concrete. Following a technique known as "wall bearing construction," workers form floors by lowering the blocks onto ledges in the walls.

"If we'd had to pour all that concrete," Landry said, "we would never have finished the job on time."

As it was, Canaday's hot water was not turned on until the Thursday before Freshman Registration