Main lounge made new again in Brown Hall

In 1997, Brown Hall was one of the first dorms re-modeled in the large scale "Mall Project," that hit 10 residence halls on North and South Central Campus a little over 10 years ago. In the Mall Project, the buildings were gutted down to the exterior walls and new electrical, plumbing, and HVAC systems were installed to replace the 40-50 year old original utilities. As a result there were public areas that had furniture re-upholstered rather than replaced with new to save some money in the overall budget. Now we are going through and replacing much of the older furniture with brand new pices, as in this lounge in Brown Hall. Other buildings that have received new pieces in the last two years include the main lounge in Sussex and the study and TV lounges in Sypherd.

End of an era...Gilbert Complex to disappear into history.

This summer, Gilbert Complex will be demolished to eventually make way for new dorms down the road. The six buildings were completed in the early sixties and have hosted thousands of UD students in more than 40 years of service. Gilbert's distinctive design features included a hallway that split off into two smaller hallways to accomodate the largest number of singles available for residents of East Campus. The Complex took it's name from a Past President of Newark College in the nineteenth century, later to become UD. This fall only three of the six buildings were occupied. In this picture from January, American Van Lines personnel remove desks and beds from Gilbert E for the last time.

Dickinson floor lounges going blue

Late last fall we began a project to reupholster all the sofas, loveseats, and club chairs in all the floor lounges in Dickinson Complex. We are finishing up by next week in Dickinson F. Unlike most colleges, UD has their own "in-house" upholstery crew that maintains our furniture throughout the residence halls, but also works on pieces in the academic departments. Our upholsterers, Gary and Ed, work tirelessly to make sure that pieces in need of repair are culled from the lounges and then returned within a short period of time. When not doing spot repairs, they work on projects like the Dickinson lounges to upgrade the appearence of an entire complex.