Nevils Hall Rehab Stirs Traffic, Noise Gripes; Kicks Out Seniors Early

The renovation of the Nevils Hall student apartment complex on the corner of 36th and N streets has nearby neighbors concerned about traffic and noise. The project, beginning May 16, calls for a three-week intense schedule of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.—chutes, dumpsters, interior demolition, asbestos abatement and reconstruction. Georgetown University promised that workers would not park on residential streets and that most deliveries to and from Nevils would be routed through the campus. Large dumpster trucks, however, would have to drive on Prospect Street and 34th Street, school reps said.

Recalling the Nevils Hall makeover during the 1980s, Karen Cruise, a Citizens Association of Georgetown board member who lives on 35th Street across from Loyola dormitory, remained skeptical that noise could be kept to a minimum. At the April 4 Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting, Karen Frank, head of university facilities and student housing, told commissioners she would see if deliveries could begin an hour later in the morning. The first phase continues until Aug. 23 with most work going on inside the building, which contains mostly four-, five-, and six-person apartments with full kitchens, and which served as Georgetown University Hospital in the early 1900s.

Even Georgetown University seniors who live at Nevils are being inconvenienced: By May 14, they must move out of their apartments, before senior week and their graduation day, although the university is compensating them. Each evictee— whose college tuition is among the nation’s highest—will receive a whopping $200.