No More Hammering

On to another topic entirely. Some of you may wonder about my references, as well as those in the student blogs, to the construction at Fletcher. If you visited any time in the last three years, but especially last fall, you know that the School has undergone a major project to update classrooms, increase the amount of space we have for classrooms, student meeting rooms, and offices, and make some necessary repairs. Despite having added so much usable space, the “footprint” of the School has remained the same. Much squeezing to optimize use: this office goes that way, and that office goes this way. The major construction has been done during summers, but work never completely stopped during the academic year.

The Hall of Flags was essentially closed last semester. We could walk through but not hang out, leaving students with no obvious place to congregate (congregating being an important part of the Fletcher student experience). The admissions office spent two summers in Blakeley Dorm (a quirky but fun place to work), and one semester sweating in our windowless air-conditioningless office, which is another reason we’re happy to know that everything is nearly done.

Those of us who have been here longer than the construction workers tend to say things like: “The dean’s office is where the admissions office used to be.” Like this is at all relevant to (or useful for) current students! But we’re all enjoying the newly created spaces, and I’m sure we’ll eventually stop visualizing the School the way it used to be. Each morning, when I come in, I see the Hall of Flags in full use again, as if the flag-less phase had never happened.

As ever, we welcome your visit. You may pass a painter, and there’s landscaping still to be done, but the flags await and you’ll find the students congregating, just as they should.