We are wrapping up the third and final summer renovations at Sellery Residence Hall, and the building is really coming into its renewed glory. Over the previous summers and academic year, we have completely renovated all of the resident floors, in addition to adding a new 11th floor to the top of the building. This summer, we completed resident floors 2–4 and finished renovations on the first floor and basement.
During the entire renovation, the resident floors received a complete overhaul that includes new carpeting, paint, room doors, windows, mechanical systems with individual room controls, furniture, and new life safety systems. The resident floors also have a 2-story lounge area for study and hangout space similar to in Witte, and all new bathroom facilities. The resident floors are served by some of the newest and fastest elevators on campus.
The on-site work continues to progress during this last month of major renovations, and we are finally able to start removing some of the traffic controls and fencing around the building. We cleaned the entire exterior and re-caulked all the precast concrete panels around the building. When residents move in, the backyard will still have some sections under construction, but these will be turned over for resident use as soon as they are completed in early Fall 2023.
Campus also started a utility replacement project roughly 5 weeks ago on the corner of Dayton and Park St. With this project, we do not anticipate any major impacts to Sellery residents, but this will impact the traffic flow around the area. This area will be under construction until winter starts, and then they will shut down until May of 2024. They plan to complete the project during the summer of 2024.
We started the design phase of Sellery Residence Hall in 2018 as we were wrapping up the Witte renovation. After the design and bidding phase, we started construction in June of 2020. It’s a bit strange to think that our new residents were in middle school when we first started this project. However, over the past 5 years, we have overcome a lot of obstacles and challenges to complete this building on time and on budget for our future residents.
While we know multi-year renovation projects are a major undertaking, this would not be possible without all the teamwork from the various departments in University Housing. For that reason, I would like to thank you for your support, encouragement, and determination as we forged ahead these past 5 years on this project together. We are so excited to welcome new residents to the beautiful space. On, Wisconsin!
Submitted by Adam Rittel