The roughly $18 million renovation to the University School of Music and Dance is on schedule for completion this November.
The music school began renovations on the Beall Concert Hall and surrounding practice rooms in April 2007, said Janet Stewart, assistant to the dean at the School of Music.
These improvements include the construction of new practice rooms that surround the concert hall, doubling the size of the building, and other renovations to the existing structure.
With construction work nearing completion, University officials are planning to move personnel and equipment back into the building by late November.
“We’re still waiting for a few things to arrive (and) be installed,” Stewart said.
Stewart said the school is still on schedule to have the new facility fully functioning at the start of winter 2009.
The majority of the music school’s administrative offices and faculty have been temporarily relocated to the nearby Alder Building for the duration of the construction.
Last spring, Stewart said some of the difficulties caused by the construction have been the “space constraints in losing a couple smaller classrooms, which has made the scheduling extraordinarily tight.”
She added, however, that the construction has not prohibited the school from holding great concerts and teaching its students – it’s just made the process more difficult.
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