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By Hasmik Badalian

Daily Bruin Contributor

On-campus housing students are expected to have a chance to live in the long-awaited De Neve Plaza this fall.

Begun in October of 1997, housing officials anticipate that parts of the new residence hall will open after several delays and increased expenses.

“I am optimistic that we will have two of the four housing buildings complete by fall quarter,” said Bradley Erickson, director of Campus Service Enterprises.

“However, I am only guardedly optimistic that we will have all four of the housing buildings complete by the beginning of the school year,” he added.

The entire De Neve Plaza is expected to house at least 1,200 students upon completion. Two or three people will be assigned to each room, depending on the volume of students who need housing, Erickson said.

Similar to rooms in Sunset Village, De Neve Plaza rooms will feature private bathrooms and air conditioning, according to the UCLA Housing Web site.

Certain rooms in De Neve Plaza have already been assigned to students for fall quarter, since housing officials expect the rooms to be completed and approved by inspectors by then.

Apart from the main housing structures, the Podium, or Commons building, which includes the dining hall is slated to open early February 2001.

Because De Neve Plaza is located right next to Dykstra Hall, residents living there were inconvenienced by the construction. As a result, special mitigation teams were formed to help provide compensatory services to Dykstra residents.

Over the past few years, Dykstra residents received a free microfridge, monthly snacks, quarterly special dinners, monthly giveaways of movie tickets, and other items in compensation.

Dykstra residents had to deal with extra noise pollution and dust from the construction site. The dining hall and mailboxes were demolished early in the construction phase to make room for the Podium building, forcing Dykstra residents to walk to the other dining halls for meals and to check for mail at the front desk.

Both housing officials and students said they are happy that De Neve Plaza will open soon.

“I’m glad that they are (almost) done building a new housing complex because there are so many students who need a place to live,” said Randy Tashdjian, a second-year biology student and Dykstra resident.

“At first, the construction was annoying, but throughout the year you get used to it,” Tashdjian said. “Plus, when you know it’s for a greater good, you don’t let it bother you that much.”

The housing buildings were first scheduled to be completed by fall quarter 1999 and the Podium building by winter quarter 2000, but the project experienced several setbacks.

“There were two principal reasons why the project was delayed,” Erickson said. “One is that the construction documents turned out to be much less than perfect, and that resulted in the need for the architects to go back and revise many aspects of the plans.

“Secondly, the contractor has had a lot of problems as they ended up firing one of their biggest subcontractors,” Erickson added. “They also had problems with lack of productivity and poor workmanship, which, when discovered by our inspectors, forced the contractor to re-work or improve many areas.”

Problems with the plans significantly affected the Podium building, where many of the mechanical and plumbing systems, specifically those serving the dining area, did not fit into the building that was initially drawn.

“The architects were forced to redesign the building to increase its height by about 18 inches to 2 feet to provide room to put all the pipes and ducts. This item alone resulted in some significant delay,” Erickson said.

Further delays resulted when the contractor fired the original framer of the buildings. Erickson declined to comment on the contractor situation.

The original construction contracts budget totaled approximately $55 million, but the latest estimated construction cost was set at $63 million.

The delays and changes in construction plans contributed to this increase. The financial impact of the delays have yet to be fully assessed, but are expected to be significant due to lost revenue and increased debt.

“The increase in cost is a result of the problems that the job has experienced,” Erickson said.