Building Improvements Mark First Month of Fall

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When students returned to Westmont for the first day of classes, Aug. 31, they encountered many changes and improvements to the Montecito campus. One of the first noticeable enhancements is a new lower Cold Spring entrance, featuring a stone veneer wall. Many larger stones at the entrance have been quarried from other construction areas on campus. Workers have planted about a dozen native oak trees near a new irrigation basin inside the entrance.

The men’s and women’s soccer team play their home games this season at Westmont’s Lovik Field, Santa Barbara City College’s La Playa Stadium or UC Santa Barbara’s Harder Stadium while a new track and field/soccer complex is being built. Soil from the basements of a new art center and science building has been used to raise the level of the new track and soccer complex. Heavy machinery has been carving tiered, four-foot wide seating into the hillside above the track. Workers are building a restroom facility that’ll include track storage and a scorer’s area. The new baseball field has been shifted slightly to accommodate the observatory and new campus road. Both the baseball field and the track will be ready for action by the start of the spring semester.

Crews were able to put the finishing touches on the three Clark Hall buildings that were destroyed in the Tea Fire. Students there are enjoying new restroom facilities, utilities and redesigned interior spaces. About 20 resident assistants helped long-time Clark Hall Resident Director Mark McCormick into his family’s new cottage.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” McCormick says. “It’s bittersweet that our old house is gone and all the memories we had there, but it’s also nice to be out of temporary housing. We can now make this a home.”

The cottage, Clark F, has been rebuilt to better fit the needs of McCormick and the students who visit his home.

A crew from DFM Engineering in Colorado will travel to Westmont Sept. 8 to begin the delicate process of installing the Keck Telescope into the yet-to-be named observatory. A large crane will be brought onto campus to lower the powerful telescope under the metallic dome. Michael Sommermann, physics professor, and students will calibrate the high-tech instrument for about two weeks. Construction crews have nearly finished the observatory, which includes a beautifully landscaped area outside the downstairs classroom.