What's up?

What's up at Chapman, you ask? Well, as you might imagine, Summer is the time to get any construction projects out of the way.
President Doti had mentioned a few times that he had plans for this courtyard between the Leatherby Library and the Beckman building. Apparently those plans are being implemented.

I am facing East in the above image. That is the Leatherby Library. Their West entrance is not being used.

(Above) This is facing South. The Library is now on our right...errr, sorry, I mean left. It's on the left (mostly off frame).

(Above) Still facing South, closer now to the Library that is on the left.

(Above) Now I'm aimed kind of South West with the Beckman building on the right.

But that's not all! The law library side of the law school's 3rd floor is also getting a make-over.

The student's Computer Lab will be shrinking considerably to make room for offices for some of the Law School staff.

The Computer Technician, Al White, was evicted from his small office here and is temporarily using an office near the librarian's lounge which had been vacant since Leatherby personnel shared the space while their library got a make-over in 2004. I believe at that time the office that Al is now in had been used by Ron Rodriguez.

And the hallway view from my chair at my desk used to be of the entrance to our store room where we had our Professional Collection, and where our Cataloging Technician worked. The shelves have been pulled out and more office space for Law School staff is being created.

The entrance is being walled up.

And soon it will be painted.

And the new entrance to that space will be here, off of the main hallway, next to the mid-entrance to the librarian's area.

Needless to say it's been a wee bit noisy with saws, hammers, drills, and the like, but the crew is very tidy.

They've covered the elevator and halls with plastic-wrap to spare the carpets (for the most part) from wall board chalk and ceiling crumbles. During the first few weeks of this stuff on the floor a walk to the elevator might have meant catching someone looking for bubbles to stomp on. Yep, even some library-types like the sound of popping plastic.

And they hung plastic as they pulled out the former cataloging room's wall and built a new one closer to that afore-mentioned mid-entrance off the main hall to the librarian's offices.

So the library office area has lost space and a door that had been kept locked and alarmed between the library and the law school will soon be unlocked and un-alarmed. The lock/alarm had been to keep any books from escaping along this route, so the new plan is to program the elevator to require a key to move from the third floor to any other. It already requires a key to move up to the 4th floor. It will soon require a key to move down to 1st or 2nd floor, and likewise to move up to third from either of those lower floors.
So what, you may ask, will students do to get to the (much smaller) computer lab? They will be required to go up the elevator on the law school side and come through the formerly locked/alarmed door.

Sounds confusing and convoluted? Yes, well, that's progress for ya.