The Daily O’Collegian

Habitat for Humanity volunteers started gutting the Architecture Building on Tuesday to pave the way for future renovations.

The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation donated $14.7 million to start transforming 35,000 square feet of the facility into 45,000 square feet of modernized space, according to a university press release.

“We’re really glad that most of the material being stripped can be reused and not go to a landfill,” said Jeff Williams, OSU professor of architecture. “We looked at a number of options, and when Habitat came into the picture, it was a perfect marriage of their interests and ours.”

Ryan Clark, project manager for Habitat for Humanity, said the university and Habitat for Humanity are both reaping benefits from the project.

“After we’re done taking care of the inside, OSU will be investing a total of $17 million for remodeling purposes,” Clark said.

Charlie Peterson, construction manager for Habitat for Humanity, said the volunteers are also hoping to make money for future projects from the stripped items.

“Door bearing hinges go for about $14 apiece, while door closers go for about $80 apiece at a resale store,” he said.

Peterson said most of the volunteers are 60-80 years old and have removed material, which includes doors, chalkboards, stair rails from three floors, frames and other objects.

“We have stripped around 30 to 40 doors today and probably about 50 from last week,” he said.

The most challenging things to remove from the building were probably the two 7-foot-tall and 15-inch-thick freezer doors, Peterson said.

“It took me about 9 hours to remove one door from floor to ceiling alone, and I’m 66 years old,” he said.

Peterson said some of the material could not be removed because of safety hazards.

“Some of the old doors from the building contain asbestos and we definitely do not want to deal with that stuff,” he said.

Among the many things found in the building were remnants of an old swimming pool in the basement.

The pool was used by Army cadets when the building belonged to the ROTC program but was later covered up for a firmer foundation.

Aside from the freezer doors being a problem, Peterson said the deadlines may pose an even greater challenge.

“We were originally scheduled to have everything taken out in three weeks but now the deadline has been set to about a week and a half,” he said.

Clark said all the material collected from the building is due at the Re-Store building by the beginning of August.

“We are planning on working Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday of this week,” he said.

“We need volunteers and we’ll take anyone who wants to help, whether they need community service hours or they want to help make a difference in the community,” Clark said.