Workers prepare the exterior columns for fresh paint.
New mahogany for the Johnson Chapel clock face. Mortar repairs on Stearns Steeple. A makeover of the lobby and hallways of Alumni Gymnasium. After major summer renovations, visitors to Amherst will find much of the campus renewed.
The College hired Valley Restoration, a company that specializes in chapel renovations, for interior and exterior repairs to Johnson Chapel that ranged from fresh paint and carpeting to improved wheelchair accessibility. Another company, Grande Masonry, made structural repairs to Stearns Steeple.
Over at Webster Hall, the Center for Russian Culture got new, museum-quality finishes, custom millwork and new furnishings. And Alumni Gymnasium has new, welcoming wall decor that celebrates Amherst athletes and the Amherst community at large.
But perhaps most significant is the ongoing renovation of a former residence on South Pleasant Street (next to the president’s house) that will become the Aliki Perroti & Seth Frank Lyceum. This project involves overhauling the mid-18th-century home and building an environmentally sustainable addition. The lyceum will house the Center for Humanistic Inquiry and the history department.
Amherst, like most everything and everyone else, has changed a lot over the past couple of years. It’s only fitting that the campus changes, too.
Photographs by Maria Stenzel
