By Nick Canzoneri
Look, at the podium. It’s a warming hut! No, it’s a bench! No, it’s… it’s an elevator!
The Albany Student Press has solved the mystery of what the university has been building this semester in front of the main library: an elevator that will deliver passengers from the deck of the Podium down to the Lecture Center.
According to Director of Media and Community Relations Jordan Carleo-Evangelist, the elevator is to help make the Lecture Center and fountain on the Uptown campus, which was constructed before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, more accessible to everyone.
Work on the elevator began in Fall 2019.
The new elevator is part of an $8.2 million renovation project that includes bathroom upgrades, a ramp and other renovations in LC1 and LC2, he said.
“Retrofitting our campus to be more accessible and inclusive is an enormous, ongoing job that the university tackles in phases as resources allow,” Carleo-Evangelist said.
The new LC elevator is expected to be in operation in Spring 2020, according to Carleo-Evangelist.
But, for UAlbany student Chris Moller, who suffered a foot injury that landed him on crutches for a couple of weeks, that date may be too late for him.
He said that going to classes on crutches was difficult because “Ramps with crutches is like going against gravity and there’s not much room on them,” he said. Nevertheless, he said he was pleased to hear the university is installing an elevator.
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