Hard-Hat Tour of New Dorms

Saturday, December 3 was a momentous occasion in the history of the still-under-construction Tritton and Kim halls, the first new dorms on Haverford’s campus since 1968. It was a guided hard-hat walking tour of the site, led by the architects and members of the Haverford facilities team.

Saturday, December 3 was a very special occasion in the history of the still-under-construction Tritton and Kim halls, the first new dorms to be built on Haverford’s campus since 1968. The day marked the first time that campus community members could actually walk through the construction site and not just follow the dorms’ progress online or from outside a chain link fence. Board of Managers members, Former President Tom Tritton, President Joanne V. Creighton, members of the new dorm steering committee, and the architects, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, were just some of the 60-plus guests that took the guided hard-hat tour. The donors whose generous support is responsible for these new residence halls, including Board of Managers member Steve Jaharis (representing The Jaharis Family Foundation) and  Mimi Kim (representing her brother, Board of Manager member Michael Kim and their family foundation, the MBK Educational Foundation), were also in attendance at the morning tour. (Later in the afternoon, an additional 25 students, staff and faculty embarked on additional tours.)
Before the tour (which was led by the architects, representatives from construction firm W.S. Cumby, Assistant Director of Facilities Management Kathleen DiJoseph and Director of Facilities Management Ron Tola), there were remarks by Chair of the Board of Managers Property Committee James Friedman ’67, President Creighton and student Dylan Lazovik ’12. The architects also spoke about the progress of the buildings (as you can see from photos, they now have walls and a second floor), their designs and the student input that has gone into the project. The assembled crowd was glad to hear that Kim and Tritton halls are on budget and on target to make their their completion deadline.

Take the hard-hat tour from the comfort of you own home by watching the video below. (Note: there are multiple videos of different parts of the tour in the playlist. Click through the menu to view the other clips.)

Our student new dorms blogger, Ben Wohl ’14, attended the tour and wrote up his impressions here. Be sure to follow his blog for further updates on the construction.
All photos (unless otherwise noted) by Joan Fairman Kanes.