Housing Expansion Committee Report

The following three Reports by James Muhr, EI 350, are from Alumni Meetings over the past year. Looking at how the plans have progressed from April 1999 to March 2000, it couldn't have happened without all those who were involved.

April 10, 1999
Greeting brothers! Another Founder's Day has arrived and we are another year closer to our goal of expanding the Epsilon Iota Chapter House at 2140 Burdett Ave. Construction is scheduled to begin in just over 2 years, in May 2001.

The main accomplishment since our last meeting in January, as many of you already know, is the submission for our review of the Preliminary Plans for the renovation of the house. These plans were distributed to some of the key Alumni, the members of the House Expansion Committee, and a copy was sent to the house. These plans will be review between now and the June meeting, after which I intend to finalize our comments to the Architect and send them to him by July 15.

Please note that the plans are only preliminary. None of the proposed exterior improvements have been addressed yet. These include the removal of the garage, the new parking area, or any tree removals or retaining walls, which may be necessary. I have also started thinking of making the house more accessible so future disabled brothers and guests may use the facilities without too much difficulty. The first floor bathroom could possibly be made accessible, as could the rear entrance to the kitchen or common room. I would like to discuss this possibility in more detail with our Architect.

At this point, a copy of the preliminary plans for reference is recommended. The highlights of the plan are:

1. The basement stairs will be moved from their current location to a location outside the existing footprint of the building. This will provide additional usable space in the basement, provide and additional means of egress from the building and allow the existing hallway to be extended to reach the new common room, with doors to all adjacent rooms.

2. The kitchen will be rearranged and perhaps enlarged, though I don't think the version shown on these plans will be constructed as shown.

3. The existing dining room will be converted to a bedroom.

4. A new common room will be constructed on a concrete slab on grade, in the area now partially occupied by the rear porch. This room, which I would like to see, extended across the entire rear of the house, will be the new meeting and/or dining room.

5. The plans show a new weather vestibule, TV room, and front stair. These elements will likely be the first ones to go if we must trim our budget due to lack of funds. Yet another reason to keep the funds flowing!

6. An additional second floor bedroom will be added.

7. An additional second floor bathroom will be added, though I'm not sure the logistics of the one shown would work since we are a co-ed house.

A new emergency stair to grade for emergency egress from the two rear bedrooms would be added.

Finally I'd like to close with a few ideas that did not make it to the plans:

1. The Psi U German Invasion Combination Oktoberfest Center and Underground Bunker Complex

2. The front yard tunnel to the bomb shelter.

3. The Psi U Smoking room.

4. The firehouse sliding pole for brothers who are late to class.

5. The basement Mosh Pit.

47. The Museum on the History of 47, the Most Common Random Number.

Sorry. This report was getting a little boring and needed a humor injection. Seriously, we are still on schedule to have the renovated Chapter House available for use by the beginning of the Fall 2001 semester. This is also several months before the 20th Anniversary of the Epsilon Iota's Installation as a Chapter of Psi Upsilon, which occurred on April 16, 1982. Please keep those checks rolling in, so we may stay on schedule. Our friendly Fund Raising Chairman will be waiting at the door to turn you upside down, shake you violently, and collect your donations as they fall to the floor.

I remain, yours in the bonds,
James S. Muhr, EI 350
Project Manager

June 16, 1999
Greetings, brothers! Another summer has arrived and we are now engaged in heated discussions regarding the potential layout of our proposed addition to the Epsilon Iota Chapter House at 2140 Burdett Avenue. Construction is scheduled to begin in just under two years, in May 2001.

The main recent accomplishment, as most of you already know is the submission for our review of the Preliminary Plans for the renovation of the house. These plans were distributed to some of the key Alumni, the members of the House Expansion Committee, and a copy was sent to the house. These plans have been reviewed during the period of the time between their submission and this meeting. Many email messages were sent back and forth describing various layouts and other ideas regarding the addition. I asked for some sketches of the ideas, but only received one. Finally, I decided to simply forward some of the e-mails to the Architect for comment. As you can see in the attached response, I didn't give him much time to respond. This was strictly my fault, partially due to the wedding plans I seem to be spending all my free time making these days. I intend to finalize our preliminary comments to the Architect and send them to him by July 15. I would like to settle some of the basic design (continued on page 5)