Despite delay, Wescoe to be completed by October

This summer’s drought is one reason the $225,000 renovation of Wescoe Beach is about two months behind schedule.

The renovations will be finished by late September or early October, well after the original completion date of Aug 1.

Peg Livingood, landscape architect and campus planner, said the extreme heat combined with the LED lighting being back-ordered caused the delay. Some students are upset because during demolition the trees were removed and have yet to be replaced.

Architecture student Dominic Sosinski, junior from Kansas City, Kan., thinks the idea of remodeling Wescoe was a great idea but the execution of could have been better.

“There are a few problems for me. Primarily being the lack of shade,” Sosinski said. “Wescoe is literally a beach so to speak. I saw someone walk out there, touch the seats, pull his hand back because of how hot it was and walk back into the shade and took a seat on the stairs.”

There are no trees on Wescoe right now so students are left outside with no shade. However, that is supposed to change.

“The trees have not been put in because it has just been to hot,” Livingood said. “ With the extreme heat we had this summer, if we planted the trees they would have died.”

Livingood added that the trees should be planted in the next couple of weeks. The trees that were in the elevated boxes on Wescoe before the renovations were actually dying because the roots had nowhere to grow Livingood said. When the new trees are planted they will be planted directly in the ground thus letting the roots grow and letting the trees flourish.

Former Student Body President, Libby Johnson initiated the Wescoe renovation to make the space more usable for students. One of the main ideas behind the renovations was to create more seating.

“The old Wescoe seating was not really great for groups of people to sit and talk,” said Hannah Bolton, student body president.

The remodel includes electrical outlets at each bench that allows students to charge their electronics on Wescoe Beach. Livingood said that there will be 10 outlets; two for each bench.
Another main goal of the renovations was to make Wescoe more attractive for people walking on campus Bolton said. It had not been changed since it was built in the 1970s.

Even after learning that the renovations were not finished on Wescoe, students still seem to have somewhat mixed reactions on the changes.

Sosinski said he does not really like the new design. He said that since KU has no “quad” this is KU’s focal point on campus for students and had great potential to become even more of a destination on campus for students and visitors.

“I would’ve liked to see something that is more attractive in materiality,” Sosinski said. “I would have liked something that makes it a known center of KU and that it had shade for sure.”

 

— Edited by Hannah Wise

• Updated Sep. 17, 2012 at 10:04 pm