A complete renovation of the St. Mary’s building will allow for more accessible and technologically up-to-date spaces for the Georgetown community, said Michael Bergin, the Executive Director of the School of Nursing and Health Studies, who is overseeing the St. Mary’s renovation. The construction, which began on Aug. 6, will completely renovate the interior of the building.
The SNHS, the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service, Georgetown University Employee Federal Credit Union and part of Campus Ministry, the ESCAPE program, moved out of St. Mary’s in July.
Plans include rebuilding the heating and air conditioning systems, creating two new computer labs, one for students of SNHS and one for the main campus and adding a clinical laboratory, a meditation room, an area for students to gather, as well as offices for both faculty and staff.
There will also be space for seven new classrooms that will be rewired and will include built-in audio-visual equipment. These renovations will allow for a wider variety of classes to meet in St. Mary’s, according to Bergin.
After reconstruction, University Information Services will occupy about half of the building. UIS will use space for consultants for student support, Hoya Computing and faculty offices.
“The basement floor will be the best facility for student support ever at Georgetown,” David Lambert, Vice President and Chief Information Officer for UIS said. “This represents an extraordinary opportunity to support the University’s technology needs.”.
Until construction is finished, SNHS has relocated to several locations including space in the Medical Center and trailers behind the Dahlgren Medical Library.
According to Rosemary DiRita, the ESCAPE Program Coordinator, ESCAPE will be housed in Healy for the next two years.
The Social Justice Center has moved permanently into Poulton Hall.
Construction is expected to be completed in August, 2002 and will total $12 million. As of now, the project is funded by a $1 million donation from local philanthropist Betty Casey.
