New improvements to Carl D. Duncan Hall of Science is underway, aiming to improve the infrastructure and spaces in the building for students and faculty.

Timothy Gridley, director of maintenance and infrastructure projects at San José State, said the improvements are a part of a larger plan to bring the building up to code in order to create new labs and meet California’s environmental requirements.

Gridley said the next project Facilities Development and Operations (FD&O) has planned for Duncan Hall will be an improved fire alarm system. 

“The fire alarm has been fine,” Gridley said. “But to do any kind of upgrades to the building we (have) to improve the fire alarm system.” 

FD&O is an organization at SJSU that oversees infrastructural maintenance, construction projects and other general services for the campus, according to their SJSU website. 

Gridley said that these renovations are known as deferred maintenance, which is to improve or replace systems that are outdated, though are not necessarily broken. He also said that the installation of the new system would not interfere with student and faculty access to Duncan Hall.

“(They are) focused on trying to look for a location where they can build this (science) lab that would accommodate experiments (with fire),” Gridley said. “It would provide a lot of education and the ability to see how fires impact various locations, whether up in the hills or the cities.” 

Gridley also said that they secured $2.6 million for the fire alarm project and the funds were provided by the chancellor’s office. 

“This is not campus funds,” Gridley said. “Our team has worked hard in trying to secure funding from the chancellor’s office as the state faces budget deficits.”

Duncan Hall has classes in the sciences with geology, chemistry and astronomy being the main courses present in the building, according to an SJSU College of Science webpage.

Twenty-two spaces in the building will also be renovated, with removal of asbestos and replacing old laboratory utilities with newer ones, according to the San José State Faculties Development & Operations website. 

Peter Beyersdorf, chair of the physics and astronomy department who’s been a professor at SJSU for 21 years said on Jan. 19, the physics department was fully transferred into Duncan Hall from the Science Building after two years of planning.

“It (the location change) was often delayed, but when it finally happened we were pleasantly surprised,” Beyersdorf said. “They were able to renovate the offices here that used to have built-in cabinetry and bookshelves that made them not as usable. But they (cleared space) and painted the walls.”

Gridley said they hope to have the fire alarm installation completed within a year and that other infrastructure projects are underway in order to meet California’s building codes. 

Eugene Lytnev, a lab instructor and SJSU graduate student, said that he noticed the chemistry labs were renovated to be used as physics labs. 

“Sometimes you can clearly see that it used to be a chemistry lab,” Lytnev said.