[nfbmi-talk] renovation slated for mcb tc kalamazoo gazett

[joe harcz Comcast]

Renovation slated for the Michigan Commission for the Blind Training Center

 

Published: Wednesday, December 22, 2010, 8:15 AM     Updated: Wednesday, December 22, 2010, 9:19 AM

Paula M. Davis | Kalamazoo Gazette

By

Paula M. Davis | Kalamazoo Gazette

KALAMAZOO — The

Michigan Commission for the Blind Training Center

on Oakland Drive will undergo a $3.5 million renovation over the next year, including remodeled dorm rooms, upgraded technology classrooms and other modernization.

 

For the next 12 months, students and staff will operate from the Clarion Hotel at 3600 East Cork St., said Susan Turney, communications and outreach coordinator

for the Michigan Commission for the Blind.

 

The center provides training in a variety of skills, including travel, cooking and communications for people who are blind or visually impaired.

 

Students, who come from across Michigan, reside at the center during their course work, which can last weeks or months, depending on the training and each

student’s needs.

 

Classes at the center ended in late November in anticipation of the building’s renovation, which will be its most extensive overhaul since the center was

constructed 40 years ago, said Patrick Cannon, director of the

Michigan Commission for the Blind.

 

Classes at the center, which trains about 26 students at any given time, are scheduled to resume Jan. 10 at the Clarion Hotel.

 

Training center staff members began work Monday setting up the necessary classroom, office and living arrangements.

 

The major overhaul of the Oakland Drive training center will include:

 

List of 3 items

• renovation of dorms to create single rooms with private baths.

• a geothermal system to replace an obsolete heating-and-air-conditioning system.

• new technology classrooms as well as modernizing the building’s electrical, plumbing and lighting systems.

list end

 

The architect for the project is M.C. Smith Associates and Architectural Group Inc. of East Grand Rapids and the general contractor is Mavcon Services of

Mi LLC, based in Kalamazoo.

 

Contact Paula M. Davis at

pdavis at kalamazoogazette.com

or 269-388-8583.

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/12/renovation_slated_for_the_mich.html