Battle, Pettigrew and Vance Halls renovation to wrap up

Extensive renovations to the building that houses Battle, Pettigrew and Vance Halls are expected to wrap up this week.

The project, begun in 2010, was initially slated to last five months, but wound up taking almost a year because of changes to the original plan.

Tabatha Turner, senior associate director of scholarships and student aid, said students have had access to the buildings throughout the construction process, with the exception of one day in August when the offices were closed due to a power outage.

The buildings were constructed as residence halls in 1912, and converted to office space in 1968.

Bruce Runberg, associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and construction, said the eventual focus of the project was to restore the building’s entire outside surface.

Runberg said the $1.2 million project is 99 percent finished and workers are now completing small maintenance projects on the building.

He said construction workers are also working to correct issues with the building’s drainage system.

Once these repairs are completed, there will be new landscaping work performed on the exterior of the building, said Wendy Hillis, project manager for the renovation of the buildings.

The building has been in need of substantial repairs for some time, Hillis said, due in part to the building’s steep roofs, which caused rainwater damage in certain locations.

New roofs for the buildings were the primary focus of the project in its early stages, Hillis said.

“One of the only things still holding the roofs onto the buildings was gravity,” she said.

But state funding and costs lower than expected from the construction company helped fund additional repairs, such as rehabilitating the windows, extensive brickwork, fixing the building’s mortar and replacement of the building’s trimwork, Hillis said.

“Once we saw the extra funds, the decision was made that if we had the money, we wanted to completely take care of the outside of the building,” Hillis said.

She said the University employees who work in the buildings have been extremely patient with the construction process, considering that the project took longer than initially predicted.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.