A drafty and uninspired space on the edge of campus has taken on a bright new look, a fresh feel and an expanded purpose. The Three Season Room, adjacent to the dining room and just off the kitchen in Bowers Writers House, was reinvented as a year-round meeting area with lots of light and leg room.
With newly installed energy-efficient window casings that allow more sun and less cold to enter the room, decorative oak-slat blinds that add privacy, and comfortable climate control, regulated by remote, the dynamics of the room, said Jesse Waters, director of Bowers Writers House, are now more conducive to small seminars, intimate meals and break-out sessions from larger events.
When we have literary readings it will be cozier.”
Founded in spring 2010, Bowers Writers House, situated between Cedar and Cherry streets, at 840 College Hill Lane, is a gift to the College from Kenneth L. Bowers ’59 and Rosalie Erb Bowers ’58, who met one another while attending Elizabethtown in 1955. It had been their four-bedroom, three-bathroom home.
Updates to the building’s Three Season Room were made possible by an additional gift from the couple in honor of Norman Herr Bowers ’54, Kenneth’s late brother and the Student Senate president during E-town’s 1953-1954 academic year.
Upgrades to the Three Season Room were the next obvious step in renovations, Waters said. “The Bowers got behind it right away. And because of smart, frugal work by Facilities, the budget was able to afford the renovations and new furniture.”
Dr. Joseph Wunderlich, associate professor of engineering and physics, held a conference in the newly remodeled room this summer. While small, the room offers the same subtleties as the building’s great room.
“The Three Season Room served two purposes for our Mobile Wellness Truck Stakeholders & Investors Conference,” said Wunderlich. The conference, organized by the Elizabethtown College Design and Technology Transfer Studio, hosted 25 participants from around the United States. Wunderlich said the room, which is nicely laid out and has plenty of seating, sunlight and air conditioning, could “handle one of three breakout sessions and serve as a nice eating area — the large table in the dining room held the buffet.”
The space’s transformation has made possible to close off the room as its own intimate area. With the glass doors closed, two events can essentially take place at the same time. And, because the space is now more temperature friendly, reservations for its use can be made for all months rather than ceasing about mid-November as they have in the past.
The walls and ceiling are now insulated and the room can be cooled or heated remotely — and quickly — via an in-room wall unit. To add to aesthetics and usability, the lighting has been recessed into the ceiling. Up to 40 people can be comfortably seated in the room for a seminar, said Waters, who, each semester, hosts about two dozen interdisciplinary events that range from dramatic readings to musical performances to interactive panel.
“When we have literary readings it will be cozier.”