Elon University took its next steps this week in transforming the residential experience on campus as work crews started the demolition of three residence halls that make up the Story Center, where a new dining hall scheduled to open late next year will nearly double the size of an expanded Moseley Center.
Fences have blocked access to the area for weeks. On Wednesday, yellow excavators from D.H. Griffin Wrecking Company knocked down the first walls of the original Maynard and Colclough residence halls. Work continued into Thursday morning as concrete, bricks and plaster tumbled into piles with each successive push into the buildings.
Initial estimates were for the demolition and site clean-up to take at least three weeks.
Construction on the new 38,000-square-foot dining hall connected to the west side of Moseley Center will begin this fall. The dining hall will include a second-story multipurpose meeting room larger than McKinnon Hall in Moseley Center, a large dining room and smaller food venues, and is scheduled to open in December 2012.
With demolition of Story Center, the names of the three buildings in that complex will be transferred to three existing residence buildings in Danieley Center.
Danieley Center N building will be named Wallace L. Chandler Hall in honor of Elon trustee emeritus Wallace L. Chandler ’49.
Danieley Center L building will be named Reid A. and Grace M. Maynard Hall in honor of the late Reid Maynard, a longtime member of the board of trustees, and his wife, Grace.
Danieley Center M building will be named George D. Colclough Hall in honor of the late George D. Colclough ‘26, a longtime member of the board of trustees.