^^^ Really amazing.

Update on Gamma Alpha (UGA) house
 

Gamma Alpha (UGA) had a groundbreaking ceremony for the new "new part" last weekend at IRD.

The old "new part", built in the 1950s, will be torn down by the end of May. Construction will begin at that point, and be complete by January 2012.

The new addition will significantly expand the house and update sleeping quarters for the women. The bedroom floor will be on the same level as the current upstairs of the original house, rather than down half a flight of stairs. Laundry will be moved upstairs, too, and the back room of the old part of the house will be reconfigured. The chapter room will be large enough to allow for growth with the current chapter size [over 200], whereas the old chapter room has long since been outgrown. The kitchen will be significantly larger, too, and finally have storage capacity which has been sorely lacking. Two ADA compliant bedrooms will be available on the chapter room level, and will also be available for chapter visitors, like leadership consultants.

Construction will stop for two weeks during the time of formal recruitment, and the women will hold recruitment in the old part of the house, as well as tents outside.

UGA has bent over backwards to work with the chapter, and will be housing displaced chapter members on the same floor of an East Campus Residence hall during fall semester.

Chapter members and alumnae alike are beyond excited about this project! It has been a pleasure to serve on the fundraising committee for this project as well.

I took this picture at the ceremony - for those of you familiar with the Gamma Alpha house, this is an artist's rendering of the Baxter Street side of the house once the addition is complete, so you are not looking straight at the front of the house, but you can see its profile on the left side of the painting.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._4358056_n.jpg

Do we know what are we going to be using the old laundry room/back entrance for? It feels like it was originally a back porch because of the siding and the windows...

I honestly don't remember, but I do know it will be repurposed. It's been a "Catch all" room for so long - it will be nice for it to look over the new courtyard area.

I'm really pleased to hear that there will be not one, but two ADA bedrooms for our sisters. Not only will this be welcoming for women going through rush who already have a need, but also for any sister who may have a temporary or permanent need during her time in school. You never know who will break a leg skiing or have to have a procedure that this room will allow her to complete her studies while having the support of her sisters and friends. Speaking of ADA, is there a parking space near the house? Campus owns our streets, and there's a spot in between us and Sigma Chi which I know one alumna has used since we have two spots off street for the chapter.

I was momentarily concerned the decorative touches were disappearing from the outside but realizing the picture is a side view let me exhale.

There is a place for parking right next to the house - it's not designated ADA, but could be. Parking is something that the House Association is addressing as well. The new addition will take up a good bit of the current parking lot.

The old part of the house has been lovingly restored - there will be no changes to that facade at all, and the plans for the new addition are meant to complement rather than detract from the old part.

I somehow came across a drawing, with the name of the architect of the previous Omicron house at Berkeley, Henry H. Meyers. There's a collection at the Bancroft Library of his work, and the downloadable file has an original date of 1923, and a remodel in 1938, for which his daughter Mildred S. Meyers was responsible.

His firm had a brother who designed a house for Phi Kappa Psi that was paid for by the mother of two men who initiated in 1901, and that house is one of the oldest and few surviving fraternity houses on the north side of campus. There was a fire in 1923, and in the 1960s Cal wanted the land and forced chapters to move to the south side of campus. In the neighborhood are the former homes of Beta Theta Pi (1893-1966 they moved twice and ended up next to our old house on Channing), Psi Upsilon (now occupied by a Tibetan Institute), Theta Xi (1914-1964 closed for hazing came back in 1977 not listed on their site or recognized by Cal), and Phi Delta Theta (1915- William Randolph Heart Jr. was a member and lived in, the same architect did Hearst Castle, they were homeless until the 1980s when they moved into our old house on Channing)

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt667nb34t/

You can see from the drawing and from information on the Alpha Gamma Delta houses blog that there was something between the two windows in the middle, I'm thinking the Armorial Bearings?

After a year's delay due to zoning issues, the Gamma Alpha house at UGA is finally happening. The "new" part came down this week.

Here is the blog with construction/deconstruction progress.

Yay for AGD! That is my sister-in-law's chapter.

I still wanna know where we/the girls are supposed to park! :)

The blog chronicling the construction progress says that there will be underground parking.

well, there goes the basement!

I got to visit the new house at Eastern Michigan University last night- Zeta Alpha chapter. As with most of the chapter houses on this campus, we are renting this house. It houses 7 women in all singles. The new Fraternity Housing Corporation handled the decor and it is incredible! Perfect for this campus. The letters just went up yesterday after the landlord worked with the city on zoning.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...64161564_n.jpg

The entry...
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...42118042_n.jpg

The dining room

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...10826223_n.jpg

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...63377112_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...98070851_n.jpg

The kitchen. They were thrilled to find several "Alpha Gamma Delta Live with Purpose" mugs in the cupboard!!

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...14461823_n.jpg

The foyer

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...83266279_n.jpg

The living room
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...21011652_n.jpg

A bedroom, with some very excited sisters :) The beds are modular and can be regular height, elevated or lofted. Each room has a dresser and desk. All the furniture matches... they have never had matching furniture before! It was always "bring your own". You can see the excitement in their faces!

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...26124186_n.jpg

Dear AGDs at Eastern Michigan - your new house looks like HOME. It mst be a very close and special sisterhood experience at Eastern Michigan. When it is time to build a snowman in the front yard - please post another picture.

University of Idaho
 

http://websites.omegafi.com/omegaws/...all&gallery=11

Here is our chapter page. Love my Delta Thetas!