Brown will officially reopen Barus and Holley classrooms in summer 2027 after an extensive redesign process following the Dec. 13 shooting, according to a Tuesday Today@Brown announcement.
The classrooms will open after the 2027 commencement ceremony in May, allowing Summer Session and Pre-College courses, as well as classes during the 2027-28 academic year, to be held in the rooms.
“This schedule will ensure and support the full and transformational renovation of the classrooms,” Executive Vice President of Planning and Policy Russell Carey wrote in the announcement.
When the redesigns were initially announced, the University hoped to reopen classrooms by the middle of the 2026-27 academic year. In anticipation of potential renovation delays, the University chose not to schedule classes in these rooms.
The timeline for classroom renovations has been impacted by the “age and scale” of the rooms being redesigned. Carey wrote that the University needed to “responsibly manage the construction budget and prioritize resources to the classroom program.”
The renovation planning was informed in part by conversations with the Committee on the December 13 Memorial in order to ensure a thoughtful reentry to these classrooms.
According to Carey, “strong support resources” will be available to students when the classrooms return to use in the summer and fall, “similar to what we provided when other areas of the engineering and physics complex opened in January.”
The changes planned for these classrooms were chosen to change their “look and feel.” They include small recesses of social spaces, increased natural light and new furniture.
Alejandro Ruiz is a university news editor covering undergraduate student life and student government. He is a senior from Edison, NJ studying biochemistry and philosophy. In his free time, he can be found with his friends or with an AirPod in.
