The demolition of Snygg Hall took place after the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation opened up to Oswego State students in the fall of 2013. As a continuation of that project, the construction of a parking lot for commuters was established in the former footprint of Snygg Hall.
Snygg Hall was an academic building built in 1968 used to accommodate faculty and students in the science department. The building was demolished for two main factors.
“In the original design it was going to cost more money to renovate Snygg Hall then it would be to add on to Shineman,” Allen Bradberry, director of Major Projects at Oswego State, said.
Another reason Snygg was destructed, according to Bradberry, included the difficulties of installing modern lab spaces and hoods in chemistry departments from Snygg in alternate locations in order to continue science classes during renovation.
“Those two factors really drove the decision in making an addition to Shineman rather instead of renovating Snygg,” Bradberry added.
Track excavators were used to take down the building.
“The track excavators had jaws kind of like a Tyrannosaurus Rex,” Bradberry said. “It ate up the building, chewed it up and knocked it down, disassembling the whole building piece by piece.”
The concrete from the old science building was reclaimed and taken to a local quarry to be reused as fill on other projects.
The lot in place of Snygg Hall is Lot 8. It is the final part of the Science Building project.
According to Bradberry, the lot has been designated for commuter use.
“Over the years, the redesign of the vehicular parking and pedestrian paths allocated new lots to the periphery in order to minimize the impact to the pedestrian traffic.” Bradberry said. “The wide brick lined east to west on the walkway that travels through all of the east campus identifies pedestrians as the primary focus.”
Bradberry said Lot 8 took a total of approximately four years to come together.
“There were three years of construction—one year for relocation of utilities and two years for the construction of the main building,” Bradberry said.
Late last week, the building project was signed off to the Oswego State campus to finish. The campus was in charge of placing signs and paint to help traffic flow through the lot. Senior Robert Davies said he commutes to his classes in Rich Hall every other day during the week.
“This new lot will allow more availability in other lots which will take time off my commute and effort to look for a spot,” Davies said.
Junior Madelyn Pierce is a regular commuter who used to dread going to her class in Shineman because she can never find a parking spot.
“I realized the new parking lot was open when I got to campus and I was able to get a parking spot right away. It definitely made my Tuesday a lot less stressful.”
