With finals week looming and the struggle to find study spaces on campus intensifying, students were introduced to UF’s new 24/7 study space Monday.
Newell Hall, which previously served as an agricultural research laboratory, opened its doors for the first time in five years to a crowd of students eager to step foot inside.
The hall, which was closed in 2012 due to old age, has been undergoing renovations since Fall 2015, according to Alligator archives.
At the opening ceremony, about 150 people wandered the four floors of the study hall and listened to speeches from those involved with the building’s development.
Former UF President Bernie Machen, who donated $5 million toward the $16.6 million renovations while he was president, spoke to those crowded into the first-floor lobby during the ceremony, which began at 11 a.m.
“First time in this building since it was condemned, so it feels pretty good,” he joked.
By 7 p.m., the hall was filled with students.
They were greeted by lounge chairs, private rooms, marker boards and flat-screen panels. For those who want to relax, there’s a pingpong table and puzzle structures, palm trees located outside for hammocks and a new Au Bon Pain bakery and cafe on the ground floor.
About 85 percent of the furniture in the hall has an outlet attached, said Anthony DeSantis, UF’s associate dean of students. He said the outlets were a top request from students. The hall contains a space for UF’s Center for Undergraduate Research and University Police.
On the fourth floor, Ben Hammack used a flat-screen TV to play a muted 15-hour YouTube clip of Gandalf, from Lord of the Rings, nodding to rhythmic saxophone music during a finals study session with his friends.
“I thought this place needed some good vibes,” the 21-year-old UF computer science senior said. “I’m doing this for the kids who’ll be here till three, four in the morning.”
Hammack said while his favorite study spot is Library West, his friend prefers Marston Science Library.
He said the newly opened hall may change the other’s minds about the libraries.
“This is going to be a good demilitarized zone in the war between Marston and West,” he said.
As students walk up the central staircase, they can learn about the building’s history through artwork and a timeline, DeSantis said.
The first-floor lobby has the same concrete of the original Newell Hall, which was built in 1910, he said. The second-floor lobby is themed after the building’s first renovation in 1944, and the third-floor lobby depicts when the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The fourth floor represents Monday’s reopening, he said.
“Each floor tells, like, a story,” DeSantis said.
David W. Parrott, Christina Bonarrigo Villamil, Susan Webster, Blake Murphy and Charlie Lane (not pictured: Bernard Machen and Joseph Glover) are pictured cutting the ribbon for the Newell Hall Grand Opening Ceremony on Monday morning.
