Should you have been present in the Marketplace on Sept. 18 at around 9 a.m., your morning breakfast may have been interrupted by the sound of putty knives scraping and smoothing the walls as workers installed the final touches on the months-long renovations done in the Marketplace and the former Brinser Lecture Room.

Following the end of the Spring 2025 semester, extensive work began on the Brossman Common’s Marketplace and the Brinser Lecture Room located in the Steiman Center. According to Director of Facilities Management Jerry Schaber, both locations were in long need of a facelift.

“The Marketplace had not been renovated since it was built in the 1990s,” Schaber said. “The Brinser Lecture Hall had also not been renovated since it was built.”

The large dining room area of the Marketplace was completed in mid-July during Phase 1. The rest of the work, including the main entrance and the seating above the concourse, was completed by August.

This considerable effort resulted in a complete refurbishment of every major feature. The hostess stand in the front was taken out and replaced. Worn out flooring and equally worn furniture were also replaced, in addition to new paint, ceiling tiles, energy efficient lighting and audio equipment.

“I think it definitely looks better,” sophomore Sawyer Martin said.

“I like the overall color scheme of it,” sophomore Brandon Dunear added. “It looks nicer, but I think [the new furniture]’s a bit of a maze to walk through. That would be my only complaint.”

Although the major fixes were finished before students arrived on campus for the new semester, a few final touches were still being installed during the first weeks.

Previously, sunlight filtering through the skylights resulted in the furniture in the dining area becoming hot to the touch and deteriorating in the heat.

Now, a heat reflecting film has been placed over the skylights. Workers would have been seen installing the film during the first week of the semester.

“I didn’t know what they were doing up there,” Martin said. “I think that’s helping a great deal [now with the heat] compared to last year.”

The final refurbishment to the Marketplace was installed during the morning on Sept. 18, which included a wall wrap near the main entrance and decals affixed in the main dining area.

“I like the designs on the walls, like the Blue Jay logo and how they added the stuff up front,” Martin said. “The color scheme’s definitely a lot better and more modern.”

At the same time as the Marketplace’s renovation, the Brinser Lecture Room in the Steinman Center also got a major remodel.

“The need for classrooms that can function as both mid-size and large student classrooms was a growing need of the college,” Schaber said. “This renovation provides the college with flexibility in scheduling classrooms for the class sizes of different ranges.”

The room’s front stage and rear sound booth were both entirely removed, providing extra space for more seating.

The auditorium-style fixed seating was also taken out and replaced with movable tables and chairs in the lower level and affixed lecture room style tables with chairs in the raised section. Fresh paint, flooring, ceiling tiles, and lighting were also installed.

With a new look, the Brinser Lecture Room also got a new name, the High Auditorium for Collaborative Learning.

“Going on tours before and seeing how the room was before [I would say] the lecture room has greatly improved,” first-year Donovan Baney said. “The environment is way better, and I feel like it’s a space someone can truly learn in now.”