Campus improvements for looks and convenience

By mid-November, MHCC Facilities Management and the Way-Finding Committee both expect to complete the first stage of a project to beautify the campus and to help guide students.

The school has acted in recent years to make the MHCC experience more student-friendly. The new student orientation has expanded and helped more students each year and the latest enhancements are the new signs.

In the last few weeks, new red-and-white signs have been posted on the corners of classrooms facing the courtyards and corridors. There are also signs going up at the campus entrances. Several trees have been removed from existing planters to make way for new trees or flowers to be transplanted.

One project already underway is the construction of new wooden decks and planters just east of the Student Union, directly above the campus utility plant. They should serve as a temporary fix to help prevent rainwater from leaking into the building, which has caused electrical damage.

The estimated cost to build these decks is $24,700. The cost of renovating the planter boxes on campus is around $6,000.

Richard Byers, MHCC director of facilities management, said that the school has hoped to address these changes for years. Financial setbacks delayed action, however. Costly electrical damage required changes and allowed new alterations around campus, he said.

Byers said future renovation plans include tackling the irrigation system. “It’s a game of priorities,” Byers said, “You have your budget, for your school, your vehicle, your living quarters, whether you have heat, what you eat.”

Given the school’s funding and mechanical problems, the current renovations were among the best immediate options, Byers said.

The current upgrades seem small in comparison to an estimated $500,000 price tag for completing all proposed way-finding changes.

Stage One of the way finding improvements will cost about $200,000 and will include signs for the entrances, campus drives, parking lots, and specific destinations.

Stage Two would cost an estimated $300,000 and include larger signs, such as building numbers visible from the parking lot.

Older MHCC signs for classrooms were small, dark, and hard to understand. The new way-finding signs are larger, brighter, and more easily understood. They feature the ‘MHCC red’ seen throughout the campus and are broken down into several areas, clarifying directions for students.

While the project costs might seem high, past proposals were cost-prohibitive, officials said.

Laurie Miller, the co-chair of the school’s way-finding committee, has been working with Deb France of Oh Planning + Design. They’ve set a plan that should be cost-effective by re-using re-purposing old signs while maintaining an interchangeable design for the future, Miller said.

Miller said school surveys in recent years documented signage concerns. “Way-finding was by far the number one complaint every time,” she said.