To make room for the Bells of Remembrance structure, three mature spruce trees had to give up their spots. What would St. Francis do?
The patron saint of ecology would find a new home for the trees, and that just what Siena’s Facilities department did.
McGuire Hall and area around the Grotto have been undergoing a lot of construction work in the past weeks to prepare for the new Patricia Gioia Hall Welcome Center. Rather than banish the trees to the woodchipper, arrangements were made to move one tree each to the fronts of Kiernan Hall, Hines Hall and the Friary.
Siena contracted with LeChase of Schenectady for the Gioia Hall project; the J. Dunn Group of Saratoga Springs is performing all of the associated site work.
“We didn’t want to lose these healthy trees, so we had them moved to beautify and shade other parts of the campus,” said Mark Frost, associate vice president for facilities management.
Frost said the entire Gioia Hall project is on schedule and about 25-30 percent complete.