On August 31st, the University held a Topping-Off Ceremony celebrating the end of the first phase of the library renovation. At the event members of the University of Hartford community were updated on the progress of the renovation and they gained the opportunity to write their names on a steel beam that was hung at the end of the event. Along with the names the beam had a flagged attached to it and a sprig of a tree, which traditionally represents life and hope.

The current plans is to extend the library further out, giving it more space, as well as an update to some of it’s current technology and adding more windows allowing students to see more outside. “The idea behind the renovations is to bring the Allen library, which is the library that served the students in the Hartt school, and combine it with the Mortensen library, which is the library that serves everybody else,” said President Walter Harrison, “and it’ll still be a place where you can still study in the quiet but the one wall by the river will be all glass and the technology with be revamped.”

This is one the two big projects that President Harrison is leading before his retirement in June 2017 and the current plan for the renovation is for it to be finished by Summer 2017 and the new library should be opened by the fall.