Trent is taking a holistic -- and speedier -- approach to improving student residences.

        Instead of upgrading a single aspect -- like electrical wiring or floors or plumbing -- throughout a college residence, Trent will do a complete face-lift of only one section of that residence at a time.

        "It makes the project easier to manage because we can co-ordinate all the trades in one area," says Physical Resources director Steve Dantzer.

        He has also moved faster to get projects approved this year so that construction can begin as soon as students leave in April and be finished before they return. Because of delays last year, Otonabee College students took meals temporarily in a giant tent and some classes had to be held in rented space downtown last September.

        Dantzer is trying to avoid similar hitches this year. By yesterday (Jan. 21), plans for all the residential colleges had been presented to college, Senate and Board of Governors committee for approval.

        All Trent's residences need painting, new carpeting, furniture reupholstered and refinished, and windows replaced, says Dantzer. The washrooms, originally designed for men or women, are shared by both in co-ed residences and must be altered to improve privacy. The electrical systems, installed when students wrote essays by hand and girls wore curlers to bed, need upgrading. "Every student comes with a computer and printer," says Dantzer. Microwave ovens, bar fridges, curling irons, hair dryers and CD players are also part of the inventory.

        Last summer, Otonabee College's A House was "renewed." "We looked at all the problems in the building that needed to be solved," said Dantzer. Then Peterborough architect Ken Trevelyan designed a plan for A House. Because Otonabee's residential "houses" are repeats of the same design, Trevelyan's blueprints will be used to renovate the others when the time comes. The glitches in the first renewed section -- like pooling water on level floors in the shower and light switches outside the private shower stalls -- can be solved when renovating the next section.

        Likewise, local architect Bill Lett is designing renovations to the west half of Lady Eaton College's north quad. That section will be fixed up this summer and the plans used again later to renew the other sections. (Lett worked in Trent's founding architect Ron Thom's studio in the 1960s and worked on the original college drawings.) Lady Eaton College rooms might be fitted with air conditioning to serve summer conference visitors, says Dantzer.

        At Champlain, Peterborough architect Baird Sampson faces a few different challenges in his plans to renovate and upgrade AB staircase. Exposed concrete ceilings and walls make it impossible to hide additional wiring, says Dantzer. So drop ceilings may have to be installed to hide new wiring "in an architecturally acceptable fashion," he says.

Other summer projects

• incorporating Champlain College office under the college's council chambers (it is temporarily in a staircase office)
• improving Champlain College's lecture hall
• renovating the ground floor of Traill College Bradburn residence, continuing work begun last summer on the upper two floors