Renovation Report: Holshouser Hall at UNCC

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CHARLOTTE – Not too many years ago, when I was a nothing more than a snot-nosed freshman at UNCC, I visited friends at Holshouser Hall, one of the old, high-rise dormitories that stood at the front of campus as a reminder of the old UNCC.

Even then, we joked about how old and out of date the building was. And that was before state-of-the-art classroom buildings, sparkling new dorms and a student union took shape, transforming the campus.

Now it looks like ol’ Holshouser will finally be getting a makeover, joining the avant-garde at the UNCC campus.

Balfour Beatty Construction has been selected as the construction manager for renovations at Holshouser Hall, the 11-floor, 100,135-square-foot dorm in the South Village area of UNCC’s campus, according to Beth Hernandez, spokeswoman for Balfour Beatty. Holshouser, visible from University City Boulevard, was built in 1973.

Balfour Beatty renovations at the 202-room Holshouser will include upgrades to the elevator equipment, new mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, a brick-clad façade on the exterior, as well as new walkways and patios, Hernandez said. Holshouser Hall, which after the renovations will have single and double rooms, will also have meeting rooms, lounge areas and two resident advisor apartments. The scope of work also includes significant asbestos abatement and demolition work.

Construction on Holshouser Hall is set to start in May, after the spring semester comes to a close, and is expected to be completed by the summer of 2015.

The design team on the dorm renovation includes the Charlotte office of Clark, Nexsen, Owen, Barbieri & Gibson, with civil engineering services provided by Stewart Engineering.

This is Balfour Beatty’s third project in recent years on the UNC Charlotte campus. In 2013, Balfour Beatty was selected in a joint-venture partnership with Metcon Inc. to build UNC Charlotte’s new 144,000-square-foot, 400-bed freshman residence hall, which is adjacent to Holshouser Hall. The company also completed the university’s student union that has served the campus since 2009.

The new construction and renovation projects are part of an ongoing effort at UNCC to bring the campus into the 21^st century. The Holshouser project is part of the bigger South Village project, which is a multimillion-dollar effort to revitalize a tired portion of the campus by adding new residence halls and a dining hall and conducting massive renovations, said Phil Jones, associate vice chancellor of facilities at UNCC.

Project description: UNCC is renovating the 11-floor, 202-room Holshouser Hall as part of the school’s South Village project.

Year built: 1973

Square footage: 100,135

General contractor: Balfour Beatty Construction

Architect: Clark, Nexsen, Owen, Barbieri & Gibson

Civil engineer: Stewart Engineering

Cost: $9.9 million

Construction starts: May

Expected completion: Summer 2015