UMass Campus Center Hotel to get $9.2 million renovation and upgrade

By Fred Contrada

08/26/2008- The Republican

AMHERST - In an effort to keep up with the competition, the Campus Center Hotel at the University of Massachusetts is undertaking a $9.2 million renovation and upgrade.

The project is being financed through the University of Massachusetts Building Authority.

When it opened in 1970, the 116-room hotel, which occupies floors four through seven of the Campus Center, was one of the few in the area. Since then, however, new and more modern hotels have popped up along Route 9.

 
Meredith E. Schmidt, the director of the Campus Center/Student Union complex, estimated that the number of rooms in the area has doubled in the past five years alone. Now the Campus Center Hotel has to fight for its share of visiting parents and other out-of-towners attending the many conferences at UMass.

The project will upgrade the one- and two-bedroom junior suites at the hotel, providing new king, queen and double beds and outfitting the rooms with new ergonomic chairs, dressers, hair dryers, coffee makers, plasma television sets and high-speed Internet connections. Bathtubs will be replaced by walk-in showers and room interiors will be refinished.

"We are trying to create a three-star hotel," Schmidt said. "We know we have location and now we want to offer a very upscale product to the community."

Schmidt said the hotel will seek a rating from organizations like AAA once the work is completed.

"We've never asked to be rated before," she said.

The work began last week and is expected to continue through next April. Plans call for the contractor, Eastern General Contractor of Springfield, to renovate two floors at a time, leaving the other two available for occupancy. The Boston architectural firm Gensler, Inc. is making a deliberate effort to conform the renovation to the original design of modernist Marcel Breuer, Schmidt said.

Of the $9.2 million cost, about $2 million will be spent on upgrading the electrical system and installing new windows throughout the building. In addition to the hotel rooms, the Campus Center contains several floors of meeting space.