If students, faculty and staff go to Sadler Hall and do not find the office they are looking for, they might try looking up.

First floor offices in Sadler Hall were relocated to the second floor to make room for crews working to modernize the building and to make it more energy efficient, a university official said.

Associate provost Leo Munson said construction on the first floor was scheduled to be finished Feb. 18. Construction on the second floor would begin Feb. 28 and would be completed in July, he said.

A sign was placed on the hallway entry door to direct students to temporary offices for Scholarships and Student Financial Aid, Campus Life, Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness and Academic Affairs Technology until February. The Student Accounts office would be the only office left to operate in its usual location on the first floor.

Susan Adams, associate vice chancellor for student affairs and dean of campus life, said she did not anticipate a problem with students finding the temporary offices because of the signs posted and the employees who could tell students that the offices are in a different location.

“Nothing’s changed,” Adams said. “Phone numbers haven’t changed. E-mail addresses haven’t changed. Hours of operation haven’t changed. You just walk up the staircase and here you are.”

Adams also said the Office of Campus Life would be sending out an e-mail about the temporary change once students get back on campus for the semester.

Munson said the renovation would leave Sadler Hall looking like Reed Hall, which was renovated in spring 2010. According to TCU’s online, self-guided tour, Sadler Hall was built in 1960, and Munson said it had not been renovated in more than 20 years.

“The feeling was we needed to bring [Sadler] up to the standards of the facilities we’ve been remodeling and building,” Munson said.

With these standards comes the university’s continuing effort toward greater sustainability.

“All the windows will be replaced, which from a student perspective is important because it is part of the sustainability effort at the university,” Munson said.

Munson, who is also the coordinator of information for the modernization project, said the project began with the third floor, or fourth level, and then moved to the basement, or first level, of the building. Next, workers would move to the second floor, or third level, once the current construction was finished.

With the recent vacancies left by the Office of Admission and the political science department, it seemed like a good time for construction to start, Munson said.

Munson said it was a year long project, beginning last June and ending late July 2011.

Space was also a reason for the renovation. Munson said the hallways are very wide on the second floor, reflecting Sadler Hall’s history as a classroom building.

The second floor would undergo the most construction after it is gutted to leave four walls and the columns holding up the floor.

“They’re actually narrowing the hallways here so we can put more people onto this floor,” Munson said. “We’re enlarging the capacity of this floor.”

All the other floors will have the original hallway structure, he said.

Adams said she was very excited about the renovations. Though she is still working out of a few boxes in the Office of Campus Life, she said she had not experienced much inconvenience with moving.

“This building has not been renovated in a long, long time,” Adams said. “So I think it will be a wonderful addition to the main campus and make us be more efficient and more effective.”

Mike Scott, director of scholarships and financial aid, said the only inconvenience of the move was having to put multiple people in offices due to a lack of space in their temporary offices.

He said visitors and prospective students understand that the construction is temporary and that the Office of Admission directs visitors and prospective students to the temporary office.

The remodeled office will be in the same location as before but will have more space, Scott said.

“After the admissions office, we’re probably the most-often visited office by prospective students and their families,” Scott said. “Making a good first impression and having it look nice and professional is a big deal.”

The following offices will be in new locations until construction is finished in February:

Scholarships and Student Financial Aid, Sadler 205

Campus Life, Sadler 211

Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness, Sadler 209

Academic Affairs Technology, Scharbauer 2015