Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College administrative coordinator Treneice Baker spent a good part of her Thursday morning killing ants.
This nuisance has become routine in her cozy office in the basement of Johnston Hall, where she and most of the Honors College staff are temporarily working before they move back to their home in the nearly renovated historic French House the first week of February.
“I’m going to be beating people away because everyone’s going to want to teach in that building,” said Honors College Dean Jonathan Earle.
Before he took the job as dean, Earle predicted implementing renovations for the French House would be a challenge.
The $5 million interior renovation is thanks to capital outlay funds allocated in early 2014 by then Gov. Bobby Jindal.
“Everyone has got a difficult budget situation. No one wants to pay more taxes,” Earle said. “But, at LSU, there’s just such tremendous upside to this institution, to this city, to this state. It’s exciting.”
This year-long feat is cheap compared to the neighboring Laville Honors House’s $40 million renovation in 2012. But the changes are drastic.
Honors student and mass communication junior Joanie Lyons took classes in the French House her freshman and sophomore year. Even as a freshman, she said, construction was already taking place in the building, which has been without renovations since 1981.
“I used to always hear about how people loved studying in the French House, and I’m really looking forward to having the opportunity to do that,” she said.
She said the newly renovated building is much more inviting, and she expects students to frequent it more than before.
“It’s going to be really exciting to have a facility that’s all up-to-date,” Lyons said.
She is especially excited for the new building features which are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Five ADA-compliant chairlifts have been added throughout the French House, so those with disabilities have full access.
“There’s a lot that’s still going on,” Earle said about renovations. “It’s still an active construction site, unfortunately.”
The French House will not be fully completed until next month, though classes are already open in the building during limited hours for the Spring semester.
Prior to the renovations, Earle said the French House’s classrooms were oddly proportioned and small, and the college was forced to “cobble together” furniture and audiovisual equipment. The original building, Earle said, was not secure at night and once housed a squatter.
Earle said the new design was inspired by old universities in England, such as Oxford, which house state-of-the-art classrooms in beautiful shells of old buildings. The trick, he said, was to maintain the historic beauty while modernizing college classrooms and offices.
Old features kept from the original building include spiral staircases and flooring on the second and third levels.
The rosette design patterns to cover the glass walls of the third floor offices are the same as the designs on the original doors of the French House.
This fusion also includes the building’s original grand salon, a formal, French-style living room with a fireplace, the salon’s original 19th-century chandelier and gilded walls. It is now also a modern place to have a large gathering, with a new acoustic ceiling for concerts and speakers.
Honors College academic advisor Michael Legendre said there are now top-notch classrooms and audiovisual equipment, carefully picked Herman Miller furniture and a row of advising offices on the renovated third floor.
The Honors College hosts most of its classes in seminar rooms with twenty or so students. Before then, Earle said classes were held by just moving chairs into a circle.
The new classrooms, which have tables “shaped like boats,” seat 20 people comfortably, allowing them to all face one another. Professors can lecture from the podium or sit down at the table and be part of the conversation.
The design was based on a question: “How do we make a room from scratch that works for what we’re doing in our honors classes?”
Earle said, along with digital signs and TV screens, the French House never had a formal reception area with a “real person,” and the new addition will make things easier to find for people unfamiliar with campus or the building.
“Imagine if you’re a prospective student with your parents for the first time,” Earlesaid. “When you walk in, there will immediately be a friendly face offering assistance. It’s a huge difference than what it was before, which was walking down a dark hall.”
Honors College coordinator of academic advising and enrollment management Jeremy Joiner said he predicts the new interior will be brighter, as the new glass walls on the third floor shedding more light than the original, smaller windows.
Renovations converted the building’s kitchen and dining hall, which once served residents of the co-ed dorm, into student restrooms and spacious closets making the building strictly classrooms and offices.
Tipton Associates is behind the French House renovations.
Earle said the head architect, whose son is a graduate of the Honors College, expressed enthusiasm for the project because the Honors College has meant a lot to his family.
Earle, who is in his fourth semester as dean, said he is excited for his staff, which is spread out through the Johnston Hall basement and Laville Hall, to all be together again.
Legendre, who worked in the French House for about five months before moving to Johnston Hall, said the problem with the French House was the lack of a functional, cohesive design.
He said the most exciting part of the move to the French House is being closer to the honors students and easier to find so they can better help students.
“It’s like that old pair of shoes that you know needs to be replaced or you know needs some work on it, but it’s hard to part with it,” said Joiner, who has been working at the Honors College for more than 11 years. “But seeing this new building, seeing this new pair of shoes, I’m really excited to be back.”
Despite recent funding issues for state higher education, Earle said there was still a push for 10 to 12 years to better the Honors College and the French House.
“I think we’re on our way to being a real showcase for honors education. Not just in Louisiana but in the SEC, in the South, in the country,” Earle said. “We have a showcase ­— a palace — of honors education at the center of our campus here at LSU.”
The French House’s official Ribbon Cutting Celebration is next Thursday, Jan. 28.

Gallery • 8 Photos

Wingate Jones

LSU Honor College comes close to finishing renovations on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016 at the French House