Renovations progess over summer on SUNY Oswego’s Hewitt Hall

Oswego, N.Y. – SUNY Oswego is making a significant $80-million investment with a full-scale renovation of Hewitt Hall. Work began last spring, and the progress caught many students by surprise when classes began in late August.

“I left Oswego in May and Hewitt Hall was just like a normal building and when I came back in August it looked almost unrecognizable with a huge hole in it,” said SUNY Oswego student Kennedi LaValley about the recent changes. 

The outside of Hewitt Hall has been filled with rubble, construction vehicles and building materials since the construction began this past spring. 

Significant progress has been made over the summer as the bulk of Phase 1 of the two-phase project was completed while students were off campus. 

“The initial phase was intended to be a hazardous material abatement and demolition with a site reconstruction… so they have gone into the building and they have taken out and basically gutted out the entire building,” explained Mitch Fields, the vice president of facilities at SUNY Oswego. 

While big changes were made in phase one of the project, phase two of the project is where we will really start to see the renovation come together. 

“On Oct. 12 of this year bids are scheduled to be received for the second phase which is all the interior work,” Fields said. 

The second phase is expected to conclude in January 2024 according to Fields, leaving students to finally have access to Hewitt Hall after years of delay on the construction.

“There may be stuff that needs to be worked on, but I would expect that January of ’24 we should see people starting to move in to finish bases,” Fields said. 

Students are now patiently waiting until 2024 for the completion of a newly renovated Hewitt Hall.