By Cal State Long Beach will be tearing down Peterson Hall 3 (PH3) on the south side of campus and constructing “a new building that will be modern and contemporary,” according to Scott Charmack, the associate vice president for physical planning and facilities management.
Proposition 1D passed in the last election and will benefit the CSULB campus by using money from the general fund to pay off the bonds that will be “used to repair and upgrade existing public college and university buildings,” according to the official Proposition 1D Web site prepared by the attorney general.
The demolition and construction of the new PH3, while it may infringe upon the scenery and bring new abrasive noises to the campus, “the number of classes won’t be affected,” according to Robert Loeschen, the director of facilities for the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Kristen Ramsey, a junior psychology major, expressed her concern regarding the length of the project.
“The only downfall, if any, will be the time without those classrooms,” she said. “Sometimes they take their sweet time on construction, but overall, I think it will be beneficial to the campus.”
All of the classes currently taking in PH3 including geology, physics and chemistry will be moved into Peterson Hall 1 (PH1) and 2. The problem that Loeschen currently faces is finding space for the part-time, tenured, and full-time faculty who are being displaced from their Peterson 1 and Peterson Hall 2 locations.The current PH3 building was designed in the 1950s prior to the introduction of bench top electronics as well as the current safety and health codes of today. The separation between the floor and ceiling is less than 12 feet, too small for all of the necessary ventilation and air-conditioning that is needed for the science classrooms.
“Long Beach has a dust problem, the buildings need air-conditioning, especially with all of the expensive equipment used by the science department. Windows can’t be opened because the dust will infiltrate the equipment,” said Loeschen.
There are currently rough floor plans available and sketches of what the new building may look like. The demolition of the building will be in progress while the design of the building is still being completed.
“There is no official timeline for the start or end of the demolition and reconstruction of PH3,” Charmack said.
