Merrill gives final goodbye
crews began the demolition of the Merrill Library.
“We’re seeing a piece of history go,” said Linda Wolcott, vice provost for Libraries and Instructional Support. “It’s kind of surreal to be out there watching them tear down a building that has been so much a part of the campus.”
The demolition and the replanting of the site of land will continue for several weeks and the existing land will become an extended Quad until a new building is put in its place.
After the demolition, removing the debris and material and restoring the hole afterward adds up to about an $800,000 price tag, Associate Vice President for Facilities Darrell Hart said.
“It’s a technical job and it takes a team of technical people to do it,” he said.
The building is composed of three sections – the middle section of which may be more difficult to take down, Hart said.
So far, the front entrance of the building and the southwest corner of the building have been demolished.
After the demolition, the university will continue waiting on funding from the Utah Legislature to construct a building that would mainly house departments of agriculture.
Other departments that may be housed in there such as the journalism, computer science and math departments are still being discussed, Wolcott said.
Since the demolition of the library began, students have been able to see the original building being uncovered from the exterior of the library.
The original Merrill Library was built in the 1930s with two additions constructed in the 1960s.
Over time, the library’s collections have continued to grow and exceed available space and safety issues of the building itself became a concern, according to http://library.usu.edu.
In March 2003, the Legislature approved the funding for the 200,000-square-foot Merrill Library Replacement Project, which is now the Merrill-Cazier Library.
Although Wolcott said the demolition of the library is difficult, she is more than pleased with the new library.
“I’m delighted with the new library, so I’m not personally sad to see [the old library] go because we have such a wonderful thing in its place,” Wolcott said.
Hart cautioned students, faculty and staff to be cautious when walking near the construction site and to not drop off people near the south end of the library.
“It is a demolition site and there is a lot of heavy equipment there, so we have to be very careful,” he said.
-mmackay@cc.usu.edu