$8,500,000 estimated for Towers

Plans to give Towers a long-awaited renovation were approved by the Board of Regents during their October meeting. The current cost estimate for the remodeling is $8.5 million. Miller will be renovated this summer, followed by Dieseth the next summer.

Topping the list of changes to be made are new windows for Miller (Dieseth’s windows were replaced last summer), removing asbestos, new movable furniture for student rooms, new fixtures and finishes for bathrooms, more showers, new plumbing, new heating, new ventilation and air conditioning. There will also be upgrades for corridors, lounges, kitchen and laundry areas.

The renovations were introduced not only to bring Towers up to code on its number of showers and handicap accessibility, but also to make the dorms a more pleasant place to live.

One million dollars was set aside for the “Tacke Wow Factor.” The “Wow Factor” is a portion of the budget left open for what Vice President for Finance and Administration Diane Tacke calls “wow spaces or upgrades.”

“My vision for the … Wow Factor … is that we would all come together and make a decision on what would be a wow factor,” Tacke said. “We will want to hear from our students, ‘If we had money to do this, what would they want to do?’”

Tacke listed more impressive finishes for entrances, new shower tiles or more permanent music practice rooms as examples of potential wow factors.

“I think there are cool things we could do on each floor that would make it a better living and learning environment,” Tacke said.

Focus groups of students will be compiled in December to meet with architects and give feedback on how they would like to see the money spent. Ultimately, the decision will be a composite of student feedback and administrative prerogative.

Additionally, vendors of moveable furniture will be brought to campus to exhibit their products.

“Students will have the opportunity to stop by and give us their input on what they like,” Tacke said.

Ben Kofoed (‘12), a Towers resident, agreed with at least some of the plans.

“If there is any problem I’ve noticed with Dieseth, its been the showers,” Kofoed said. “Two per wing is just not enough to get guys through at rush hour. I think the addition of four showers to each floor would be hugely advantageous and convenient for Towers residents.”

During the summer, Towers is home to thousands of students, workers and guests. Summer Programming hosts 55 to 65 events per summer and houses 4,000 to 6,000 participants. Renovation plans throw a kink in the norm for summer housing, but campus officials are ready for the adjustment. Dieseth will be open this summer, with Residence Life housing students and workers on two floors and Summer Programming housing guests on the other six. Construction in Miller will take 364 beds out of circulation. Guests who would normally stay in Miller will be redirected to Ylvi and Larsen. Student overflow will then be housed in Norby House or the Prairie Houses.

Judson Barclay, director of summer programming, has seen several dorms and the union remodeled over the summer during his tenure at Luther.

“I really endorse [remodeling during the summer] and I understand that it is part of my job description to support that, which I do,” Barclay said.

He describes his job as minimizing confusion and inconvenience for those people visiting Luther during the summer.

“In a couple of years, it’ll be great,” Barclay said. “For us as well as the students.”

As to how the estimated $8.5 million cost of the renovations will be paid for, $7.5 million of it will come from debt financing. Within 10 years, Luther will have paid off existing debt comparable to the Towers spending. Thus, there will be no long-term increase to the amount of debt the school has at any given time.

“The time to do it is great, because fixed interest rates are at an all-time low,” Tacke said. “We don’t have to increase our debt budget.”

The other million dollars will come from operational costs for “deferred maintenance” built into the Facilities budget. Each year, around $600,000 is allotted to Facilities for deferred maintenance to fix things which have reached the ends of their life spans. Over the next two years, all of the deferred maintenance spending will be directed to renovating Towers.

“There’s a lot of deferred maintenance in Towers,” Tacke said.