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Quincy Fall Construction To Start at 8 a.m.

By Rebecca D. Robbins, Crimson Staff Writer

Renovation of Old Quincy will kick off with about 15 hours of construction each work day this summer, Leverett House Master Howard M. Georgi ’68 announced in an email sent to the Leverett House community Monday morning.

When students return to campus in the fall, the construction will begin at 8 a.m. rather than the tentative summer start time of 7 a.m. each work day, Georgi wrote.

“I don’t usually wake up at that hour,” said Quincy resident Hania S. Chima ’14, who said she hopes to live in New Quincy next year regardless of the nearby morning noise. “I guess it’s something I can deal with.”

Quincy House, which will be the first House remodeled as part of the College’s extensive House Renewal project, will divide its residents during the renovationdivide its residents during the renovation among five buildings—including “swing space” apartments above Massachusetts Ave.—during the upcoming academic year.

In his email, Georgi broke the construction schedule into a four-phase chronology stretching from this upcoming summer to spring 2013.

The plans have been “worked out in great detail,” Georgi wrote in his email to Leverett students and tutors. “But you should be aware that unexpected things could happen to make it even worse.”

According to Georgi, the first phase of construction on Old Quincy will begin soon after Commencement and last until late July.

This phase, which Georgi described as “quite disruptive,” will tentatively take place from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. each work day.

In an interview with The Crimson, Georgi said that construction will conclude in the mid- to late-afternoon when school starts up again in the fall.

Georgi described a scene of busy summer construction, writing that temporary barriers, fencing, and heavy trucks will crowd the streets surrounding Quincy House.

Students staying in Quincy during the summer will be unable to access either Mill St. or DeWolfe St. from the gates from Quincy courtyard, Georgi wrote.

In the second stage of construction, lasting from late July until mid-November, Georgi wrote that he anticipates that access from the main entrance of the House to DeWolfe St. will be restored.

When the third stage of construction begins in mid-November, the “heaviest traffic” of trucks and outside work will diminish, while construction will pick up inside Old Quincy.

The fourth stage will stretch from March until the expected conclusion of the renovation in June.

Georgi’s email came a day before Leverett House juniors were required to submit their preferences for next year’s rooming arrangements.

In his email, Georgi wrote, “Because we will be right next to a major construction site, the plans [for the construction on Old Quincy] might affect the housing lottery, so I wanted to get the word out to you right away.”

Quincy resident Eric R. Brewster ’14 said he did not expect to be fazed by construction.

“They have a job to do, and they want to complete the project in a reasonable time frame,” Brewster said. “No one wants to deal with the annoyances that construction entails, but it’s for a good purpose, and in the long run, it has to happen.”

—Staff writer Rebecca D. Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@college.edu.

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