At first, records showed that the Hewitt Hall renovations would cost $65 million, a number that has now risen to $80 million, but what does this mean?

Records obtained by The Oswegonian show the cost for the renovations will remain the same, but an additional $15 million would be needed to satisfy design and equipment costs;  $10 million will cover design costs while the remaining $5 million will satisfy equipment costs, officials said.

All of that money will come through the SUNY Construction Fund, which allocates funds for big projects like this one across SUNY’s 64 campuses.

The project, one of several happening around campus, will also bring 439 jobs to the college, records show. Out of those, 293 will be direct hires while the remaining 146 will be indirect.

“Permanent jobs will be contingent afterward,” Associate Vice President for Facilities Services Mitch Fields said. “We are hoping for a big bump in communication and graphic design.”

Officials said a one-year delay caused by the pandemic also had an influence in the costs associated with the project, although those costs actually went down rather than increasing, Fields said.

“Everybody paused for a year, and it was probably a good thing because it has been really hard to get workers,” Fields said. “There’s a shortage of construction workers, and by waiting the year we got decent bids.”

The Hewitt Hall renovation is broken into two phases, Fields said. Phase one encompassed the demolition inside of the building and the abatement of hazardous materials. The counterpart will involve installing all the windows on the outside and the clear story on the second floor, he said.

That first phase was estimated to cost $23 million. Its final cost came down to $18.7 million.

The renovated Hewitt building will encompass an exterior performance area as well as a small restaurant venue with outdoor seating between Tyler and Hewitt. A new traffic circle will also be built between Hart and Hewitt halls.

“The campus will be much greener and the building will be much brighter,” Fields said. “There’s going to be a lot more windows to the outside and the inside will look completely modernized.”

In order to bring the ambitious plan to life, school officials visited Syracuse University and West Virginia University, among others, to get an idea of how to launch the plan, Fields said.

“The thing we enjoy is knowing we built something that changes people’s lives and helps them reach their optimum potential,” Fields said. “I enjoy making a difference in people’s lives. I can affect thousands of students and better thousands of people’s lives directly by these buildings, and then every person they touch after that, it just goes out and out, and out.”

One question, however, is what will happen to all the businesses that were once housed in Hewitt.

Upon completion of the project in the fall of 2023, some of those businesses will return to Hewitt. One of them is Artville.

But Hewitt is not the only renovation underway at Oswego. There are four additional renovations happening across campus as well as potential projects in the coming months.

Aside from the $80 million the school received for Hewitt Hall, the SUNY Construction Fund allocated $14 million to repair the Sheldon Hall exterior.

Other upcoming projects include building a tunnel that would connect Penfield Library and Lanigan Hall. Then, Penfield and Lanigan will be renovated in multiple phases, Fields said.

“We’re hoping that the state allows us to start designing [for the Lanigan project] next spring,” Fields said.

Once approved, it will be in the process of design for about 12 months, Fields said.

“We’ll be building just this one connector first,” Fields said. “But to do that, we have to know what the other two buildings will become.”

Additionally, the school has ongoing renovations at Mary Walker Health Center, Tyler Hall and outside the Hewitt Quad.

The construction costs for these other projects add up to $92.5 million, records show. Of those, $11.3 million would come from the university’s own funds.

In total, the different projects bring 1,171 jobs to the college.

Other discussions on the table involve upgrading Lee Hall as well as Laker Hall. Fields said they could also soon form a steering committee to upgrade Mahar Hall.

Kailee Montross | The Oswegonian