Update: Early stages of Smith's critical maintenance work underway
In fall 2021, Smith Management began collaborating with the Student Fee Committee on a request for state bonds that would pay for repairs to critical maintenance systems in the building. This resulted in an $8.1 million bond to fund repairs or upgrade certain key systems, some more than 60 years old.
Why? Besides frequent breakdowns, available personnel who can maintain these aging systems might be in short supply or often the systems require expensive replacement parts fabricated by hand as they are no longer commercially available. Most heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC) in Smith lack computerized monitoring that allows for more control over room temperatures. Issues with the elevators — well, we all know of those. These critical components of Smith must be replaced before portions of the building become unusable.
Campus Planning and Smith Management are currently securing bids and selecting contractors to do the work. The tentative plan is:
– Once contractors are onboard, final plans and a specific timeline for work will be created by spring 2025.
– Elevator and HVAC work should begin in April 2025. It is projected to take up to one year.
— During the work period, HVAC in certain areas of the building will be offline. Perhaps for several months. At this stage, it appears one system at a time can be worked on so that the rest of the building will have full HVAC. Those with work spaces in the affected offline areas will be offered temporary space elsewhere in Smith or in neighboring buildings.
— Elevators might be offline for several weeks. Things won’t be certain until the contractor is onboard, but the current plan is for only one elevator to be offline at a time. Some areas in the building might be taken offline during these repairs if alternative access cannot be coordinated.
This is all still early days and more information will be coming in the fall, but if you have immediated questions, send them to Randy Mishler, Smith's communications coordinator, at rmishler@pdx.edu.