Department offices utilize Queens Hall

BY ANDREA HARDALO

A construction project in Kiely Hall has led many departments to relocate to Queens Hall — formerly known as the CUNY Law School.

Unlike Kiely’s location at Queens College, Queens Hall is not on campus and is located on 65-21 Main Street.

The renovation in Kiely will install new walls, replace old unit ventilators, heating and cooling vents and use more mechanical air energy efficient systems; an overall renovation to make the tower more comfortable.

“It will create better quality of the environment in that space […] it will have better quality and will benefit the department and students,” Dave Gosine, the director of facilities design, construction and management said.

The project will begin in the spring of 2013 and is expected to last 12 to 16 months depending on environmental conditions or how brutal the winter will be.

For the past two months, 15 departments have moved, including, professional and continuing studies, adult collegiate education and weekend college.

The relocated departments have the option of staying at Queens Hall after the construction project has finished, or moving back Kiely.

“We don’t want to force people to stay,” Gosine said.

The linguistics and communications disorders department prefers Queens Hall as compared to their former location in Kissena Hall and will permanently stay there.

Gosine states that LCD and professional and continuing studies have enjoyed their stay. Since both departments are fairly large, they have used the space at Queens Hall to their advantage.

The building is about 80 percent occupied and includes 25 “state of the art” classrooms with new flooring. Also, more parking is available and it is in close reach with bus stops on Main Street.

Students and faculty have two ways of getting to Queens Hall. One way is walking across the track to a pathway that leads to the back of the building; the other is going to the end of Parking Lot 15, near Townsend Harris High School, which leads to a pathway behind the soccer bleachers.