After nearly 90 years with a front door on Plymouth Court, The John Marshall Law School will move its entrance to State Street. A glass overhang was installed the weekend of March 10 as part of the ongoing construction work.
The new entrance will be more noticeable after March 19 when the outdoor scaffolding starts coming down.
The State Street hallway and the first and second floor elevators will be closed to students and staff the week of March 12 so that floor and wall tiles and wood paneling can be set. Ceiling grids are being hung and new lighting fixtures will be dropped in, and the stairway leading from the first to the second floor lounge areas will be set with granite on the stair treads, according to Brendan Keane of Bulley & Andrews, the general contractor on the project.
A new security entrance will have students going through turnstiles on the left of the entrance hall before they can access elevators and a hallway that will lead to the new student commons.
The elevator walls will be wood paneled and the doors will be trimmed in metal. Eventually the same look will be installed on the elevator wall at the second-floor lounge.
The official opening date for the new student area is dependent on city inspections, but it is hoped the space will be available to students around April 18, Keane said.
Once the first floor is accessible, the second floor space will be completely closed off so that work can be completed on offices, a conference room and bathrooms. New carpeting will be laid and lighting will be improved. Keane said that space should be ready around July 1.
The current Bridge Café will be converted to a vending machine area and additional seating. The book store, now in one of the exterior spaces on Jackson, will move to the first floor at the new student lounge. The other Jackson store fronts will be converted for storage and mail services.
Work on 19 W. Jackson, future home of the Veterans Legal Support Center & Clinic (VLSC), will continue through the summer. It is hoped the VLSC can occupy the first floor space at the start of the fall 2012 semester. There are plans to connect the space to the other three John Marshall buildings.