GC pit undergoes renovations

Written by: Camila Fernandez/News Director

University students will now have to wait until next year to host their events at the Graham Center pit.

The Graham Center at the Modesto A. Maidique Campus has placed a barricade around the pit for renovations.

Renovations include audiovisual enhancements, acoustical treatment, lighting and a video wall of 150 inches diagonal, according to GC director of administrative services, Carlos Carrasco.

Carrasco said the pit will be ready some time in January.

The size of the pit will not be increasing but there will be an improvement in the quality of the space, he said. According to Carrasco, past presentations at the pit have been substandard.

“It’s hard to hear, the lighting is poor and the audio is muffled sometimes,” Carrasco said. “There’s too much bouncing around the sound. So unless you’re there at the front [of the pit] or two rows at the front, you can’t really hear what’s going on,” he said. “It makes it hard to enjoy the presentation.”

The company in charge of the construction is the Turner Construction Company.

According to Carrasco, the total cost of the project is $250,000, which includes the equipment, construction and acoustics.

Students who had made reservations to use the pit were notified about two or three weeks in advance. Plans to renovate the pit began in November 2014, Carrasco said.

Carrasco also said that the Center planned to start the renovations in November because of holidays and final exams.

“So, there’s not a whole lot of events going on,” Carrasco said.

He said students will now be hosting events mainly at the lawn on the north side of campus, the Green Library Breezeway and the Betty Chapman Plaza.

camila.fernandez@fiusm.com

Image by Camila Fernandez