Story by Michelle Hawks, Staff Writer

Photos by Rhiannon Branch/The News

J.H. Richmond Residential College could look a little different when the restoration project is complete.

Representatives from facilities management and Luckett and Farley, the architectural firm leading the restoration project, were on campus Wednesday, April 4 to share the four design options and to answer questions.

Option A is to restore the building to match the original 2008 plans. No additional energy efficiency or sustainable measures would be added. This would be the cheapest option.

In addition to restoring the building, options B, C and D would include various upgrades.

Option B would include an expanded center lobby on the first and second floors and energy efficient measures such as lighting and HVAC controls. The plan repurposes meeting rooms into four-bedroom suites.

Option C would repurpose the south meeting rooms into four-bedroom suites, add lighting and HVAC controls, install LED lighting throughout the building and alter the exterior design.

The final plan, option D, calls for significant expansion to the center lobby on the second floor, repurposing the meeting rooms into four-bedroom suites and adding lighting  and  HVAC controls and LED lighting throughout. Option D is the most expensive option and would only have 260 beds, while the first three options would have 266 beds.

In addition to reviewing the four design proposals, people were also able to rank efficiency and sustainability options in the order from most to least important.

The options include: LED lighting, automatic lighting controls, automatic heating and cooling set-back, recycle station(s), low flow faucets and toilets, key card access to rooms, elevator use limits, 100 percent WiFi coverage, water bottle filling stations and daylight sensors.

Director of Communications, Shawn Touney said the University felt Wednesday’s event was important to allow the Murray State community to voice their opinions and to see the design options.

“The campus community, particularly students and future students of the University, should feel a sense of excitement as plans continue to move forward with the repair and restoration of J.H. Richmond Hall,” Touney said.

Touney said forthcoming discussions between the architectural firm and university officials will determine what direction the repair and restoration will take. The Board of Regents must approve the plans before they are finalized.

Construction is expected to begin later this year Touney said, and the goal is to have the building open in time for the Fall 2019 semester.

Rebecca Robinson, junior finance major, said it was important to voice her opinion on the options because she lived in Richmond Hall before the explosion, and she is their Residential College Council president.

“Everyone was really close-knit, so for this to happen, it changed our lives and is still changing our lives almost a year later,” Robinson said.

Although Robinson will graduate by the time the project is completed, she wants people to have the opportunities she had while living in the building.

“The better the environment, the more people are willing to cooperate and collaborate and come together,” she said.