Dominic Baez
News Editor

Starting with a total gutting of the interior, continuing with the construction of a light monitor and with a date of completion sometime around 2012, Northrup Hall is well into the planning phase of its renovations.

The planning program for Northrup Hall, the 25,000-square-foot academic building located between Melrose and Taylor Halls, has recently been approved by the Board of Trustees. However, the changes have only just begun.

As of now, and for the near future, Northrup Hall serves as a storage facility for Auxiliary and Housing Services. Academic departments also keep extra files and records there.

According to the planning program, Northrup Hall will soon be home to the business, English, psychology and economics departments.

Katherine Kernberger, professor of English and department chair, said she is looking forward to the change.

“There was a real need for a gathering spot for students in the department,” Kernberger said. “We needed a space for them, with facilities that are more elegant than the ones we have now.”

Northrup Hall will be broken up into three separate levels, with new technology and facilities present in each, similar to Renshaw Hall.

John Hall, senior director of Facilities Services, said some of the rooms will be left largely unaltered because of their historic architectural design.

A focal point will be the light monitor, which is a glass tower in the middle of the building allowing light to flow in naturally to all three floors.

The main entrance will be on the south side of the building, facing the academic quad. It will be revamped to allow access to both the main floor and the basement.

The basement will hold some of the larger classrooms in the building. Two of them will allow for 30 to 40 students in tier-level arena-style seating. These rooms will be for business classes.

The second level will have lecture classrooms, along with the business department offices. Most everything else will be on the third level, including the Writing Center.

For now, the college is still fine tuning the plan. After it is finalized, Linfield will begin fundraising for the required capital. At present, the amount needed is undetermined. Though Hall said the renovations might be completed around 2012, that is a tentative date at best, and it depends on many factors, such as the economy.

“It is going to be very exciting,” Kernberger said. “I have been in the same office (in Melrose Hall) since 1979. I probably have dead squirrels in there, since I leave the windows open in the spring. It will be a change, that’s for sure.”