Swing space plan for Pray-Harrold, Science Complex in development

Swing space. It's a simple term for a complex challenge facing Eastern Michigan University. The definition is easy enough. "Swing space" denotes possible temporary areas for classrooms and offices during the renovation of the Pray-Harrold and Mark Jefferson buildings.

POTENTIAL CLASSROOM: Room 330 in the Student Center is an example of the types of space available on campus that could be used for temporary classroom or swing space while Pray-Harrold and Mark Jefferson, EMU's two largest classroom buildings, undergo renovations. A team of EMU faculty, staff and administrators has been studying the issue since last year.

Yet, the term also represents one of the most dramatic and important logistical undertakings to occur on the Eastern campus in many years. The approximately 340 faculty and staff members who work and teach in Pray-Harrold will need a temporary home after they all move out when the winter term ends and construction begins next spring on EMU's largest and busiest classroom building.

With that challenge, however, comes a beacon at the end of the tunnel: long-sought and much quicker renovation of this vitally important building. It is a case of short-term inconvenience for significant long-term gain. Faculty, staff and construction professionals who have examined the Pray-Harrold project conclude that more than a year will be saved in the renovation time by having all staff move out at once, as opposed to a phased moving process.

Construction is already under way at the Science Complex, but most of those offices will be self-contained in the addition and the renovation.

Pray-Harrold is another matter for faculty, students and staff. If all goes as planned, the building would reopen for the fall semester of 2011. IT staff on the first floor would be affected only during the calendar year 2010, and would move back into the building once first-floor renovations are completed in August 2010. But the rest of those faculty and staff who use Pray-Harrold face more than a year of temporary, new classrooms and offices at another location on campus.

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