Construction began recently on a $2.1 million remodeling project at the Hinckley Library on the Northwest College Campus. So far, workers have focused on removing the greenhouse that was attached to the south side of the library. Work to replace the greenhouse with a late-night study room and office space, and to add a second story to that section of the building, will begin shortly after the first of the year, according to Monty Wardell, superintendent for Groathouse Construction.

Groathouse is the general contractor for the project.

The remodel is one of four building projects planned at the college this year. A second project will convert the dance studio in the Nelson Performing Arts Center into a recording studio, and a third will divide the Trapper Gym with a removable wall to facilitate dance and other classes that will be displaced by the loss of the dance studio.

A new greenhouse also will be built to replace the one that was removed from the library.

Kim Mills, NWC vice president for administrative services, outlined plans for the library addition.

A late-night study area will be located on the first floor in the area previously occupied by the greenhouse. That room will have an outside exit and will be staffed until approximately 1:30 a.m. to facilitate students' late-night schedules, Mills said. The library is currently open until 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday during the regular school year.

First-floor work also will include a rework of library office space, he said.

On the second floor, library book stacks will be moved into the new addition, and the existing area will be reworked to create a tutoring center, a new group study area and a computer lab.

The computer lab will house 31 computers, which librarians can use to teach students how to use instruction technology. Sixty sessions of information literacy are taught in a typical fall, helping a total of about 890 students. Moving the classes to the library will free up space in other buildings where they are taught now.

The tutoring center will free up space in Colter Hall.

All told, the library project will add 5,300 square feet of classroom, lab and office space.

The exterior of the second-floor addition will be finished with metal zinc plates, which will be a light gray in color, Mills said. The zinc finish will have a 100-year lifespan.

Besides adding space on the first floor and expanding the library's second floor to the south, the construction project will replace the fiberglass on the north and west sides of Hinckley Library with energy-efficient glass. That portion of the work will cost about $200,000 and will save heat in the building, resulting in lower energy bills, Mills said.

When combined, the second-floor addition and the new glass walls will change the appearance of the library completely, he said.

Wardell said the library addition and renovation work will be completed in three phases, with the first phase consisting of demolition of the greenhouse and pouring concrete.

“We will put in a new steel structure and pour a concrete slab for the second floor,” he said. “Once the roof and everything is finished on that part of it, we'll move on to phase two, further west on that south exposure.”

A connection between the existing building and the new section won't be opened up until later in the second phase, he said. Until then, “it will be kept separate, partitioned off, to protect the library from dust ... We have to keep the library operational.”