EARTHQUAKE / The Long Road Back : Starting Over at CSUN
At the quake-ravaged Cal State Northridge campus, administrators decided shortly after the first big aftershock that rather than reassessing damage after each jolt, they would abandon permanent buildings altogether for the duration of the spring semester. So students who return to the university today will study in portable classrooms.
As of last weekend, crews working around the clock had erected 50 such temporary structures. CSUN administrators are expecting 350 more bungalows by Feb. 14, when the school’s 25,000 students will resume classes.
“It’s going to be quite a feat to get them in here, but we’re going to do it,” said Bruce Erickson, a CSUN spokesman. “We’re laying out an entire new city.”
Teams of workers are setting up the new structures wherever they can, starting at the campus music field on Nordhoff Street and moving north through the campus across Devonshire Street. And rather than taking the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s suggestion of numbering the buildings, CSUN officials decided to name them. So far, they have designated one cluster of bungalows “Zelzah Court.” Another is “Music Lawn.”
In all, the buildings, which are expected to cost between $5 million and $6 million, will be configured into 251 classrooms, eight 200-person lecture halls and 29 restroom buildings. The remainder of the buildings will house administrative offices.
When the bungalow city is complete, it will accommodate more than 14,000 students at one time, Erickson said.
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