SUNY Oswego project to renovate Hewitt Hall into broadcasting and graphic-design facility

OSWEGO, N.Y. — SUNY Oswego has launched a $65 million project to renovate Hewitt Hall into a hub for its School of Communication, Media and the Arts.

The renovated Hewitt Hall will serve as the new home for the college’s broadcasting and graphic-design programs. Hewitt Hall is the former Hewitt Union, the school said.

Developed with input from students, faculty and other stakeholders, the Hewitt Hall project has a target completion date of fall 2023 to host classes, labs, events, and related activities. The effort seeks to “further elevate” the media-arts programs in Oswego’s School of Communication, Media and the Arts (SCMA), the school said.

Exterior renovations are expected to be completed in 2022.

Financed by the State University Construction Fund, projects such as Hewitt “follow a pattern of strategically deploying” capital funds to support SUNY Oswego’s academic program needs as well as “emergent programs with enrollment growth potential,” per a university news release.

SUNY Oswego has chosen DiPasquale Construction of Spencerport to handle the renovation work, an effort that will create 439 jobs over the course of the project. The school has also chosen CannonDesign of Buffalo as the project architect.

“When complete, Hewitt Hall will become a facility where the very best students and distinguished faculty in the nation will come to find a transformative, state-of-the-art hands-on learning and teaching space,” SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley contended. “It adds to a sweeping $850 million renewal program that has made our campus increasingly competitive in our academic programs…”

SUNY Oswego’s goal is to provide the “most technologically advanced facility in the nation” for communication and graphic-design programs. The project will bring the remaining SCMA departments under one roof.

It’s like the college’s renovations of Tyler Hall in 2019 that brought the fine and performing arts programs together, and Wilber Hall in 2018 that brought all School of Education departments under one roof.

The first floor will have a high open area with classrooms, faculty offices, and a skylight. It’ll also feature a television-studio suite that includes a newsroom and control room to “showcase the college’s historic strength in broadcasting.”

The ground level will contain most of the other broadcasting, audio and podcast studios and technology spaces.

The second floor will focus on graphic design with collaborative workspaces that will “resemble a professional environment more than traditional classrooms,” SUNY Oswego said.